"We know that, at some point, the courts will rule in our favour [in the challenge to the CESE]. How much will we recover from those years? I don't know, but I think it will be positive for us", said REN's CEO, Rodrigo Costa, during the presentation of the 2024-2027 strategic plan. Last week, the Constitutional Court deemed the CESE levy on renewable energies unconstitutional. The CESE was created by the PSD/CDS-PP government led by Pedro Passos Coelho in 2014, as a temporary measure, but it was renewed for the 11th consecutive time in the 2024 State Budget, estimating revenue of 125 million euros for the Environmental Fund's budget. The CESE is levied on EDP, Galp, REN and Endesa, since it is based on the value of the net assets in the country of companies dedicated to the production, transportation or distribution of electricity; transportation, distribution, storage or wholesale marketing of natural gas; and refining, processing, storage, transportation, distribution or wholesale marketing of crude oil and petroleum products. The head of REN said today that he believes that the Constitutional Court's decision "will have a positive impact", but it is speculative to say whether the levy will be cancelled. "Something is changing, there have been decisions that had never been made before that were made for issues from 2019, therefore, our expectation, which I think is legitimate, is that decisions after 2019 may have an interpretation" [...] We expect good decisions in the future", said Rodrigo Costa. The CEO also highlighted the issue of regulation in the sector, which is the responsibility of the Regulatory Authority for Energy Services (ERSE), hoping that the "enormous challenges" of changing from fossil fuels to renewables will be taken into account in the next regulatory review. When asked about the impact of the investment that REN plans to make on the electricity tariffs paid by consumers, the financial director, Gonçalo Morais Soares, pointed out that the weight of the grids on the tariffs is around 6%. "A large part of the investment that we are making does not impact the tariff, we have several hundred million euros in investments that will not impact the tariffs. The way in which this investment structure was set up and well thought out will minimise the impact on consumer tariffs", he assured. Read Also: REN will increase shareholder remuneration to 16.3 cents per share (Portuguese version)