In advance of the Act for Partial Amendment of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Procurement of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources by Electricity Utilities (2016 Act No. 59) that was established on May 25, 2016 and is coming into effect on April 1, 2017, at the end of July, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ("METI") announced an Ordinance for Partial Amendment of Enforcement Regulations for the Act on Special Measures Concerning Procurement of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources by Electricity Utilities (2016 METI Ordinance No. 84) together with a Notice of Partial Amendment of the Notice on Procurement Price and Procurement Period (July 29, 2016 METI Notice No. 212). The METI Agency for Natural Resources and Energy has also released various related documents and information.

This alert provides a summary of the much awaited amendments to the rules for setting Commercial Operation Date ("COD") cutoff dates and revising Feed-in Tariff ("FIT") price upon changes to panels.