Energy Spain Newsflash 1202022 114655 AM

NATIONAL MEASURES RELATING TO THE ELECTRIC SECTOR

Offshore Wind Roadmap (Hoja de Ruta de la Eólica Marina)

On 10 December 2021, the Spanish Council of Ministers passed a resolution approving the Roadmap for the development of offshore wind and marine energy in Spain. This Roadmap contains a total of 20 master guidelines aiming to achieve between 1 and 3 GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2030 and up to 60 MW of other offshore energies in pre-commercial phase, such as wave energy.

In order to achieve these objectives and implement the measures provided by the master guidelines, up to a total of € 200 million are foreseen to be made available by 2023.

The Offshore Wind Roadmap can be accessed here.

Self-consumption Roadmap (Hoja de Ruta del Autoconsumo)

On 21 December 2021, the Spanish Council of Ministers passed a resolution approving the Self-consumption Roadmap.

The Self-consumption Roadmap contains a total of 37 measures aimed at raising awareness, training professionals and disseminating, with the objective of improving knowledge and acceptance of self-consumption by the entire population, as this issue has been identified as one of the main barriers to its implementation in Spain, as well as measures to promote collective self-consumption.

Among the provisions of this Roadmap, it is foreseen the commissioning of a total of 9,000 MW of self-consumption capacity by 2030, although the IDAE (Instituto para la Diversificación y el Ahorro Energético) considers that a total of 14,000 MW could be reached.

Master guidelines of the Self-consumption Roadmap can be accessed here.

Specific Remuneration Regime for cogeneration facilities

The Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITERD) has submitted to public information the legislative framework that shall govern the award of the specific remuneration regime in favour of cogeneration facilities.

The proposed legislative framework consists of a Draft Royal Decree that sets out the requirements for the calls and a Proposed Order regulating the procedure for the allocation of the specific remuneration regime.

This specific remuneration regime will be available for: (i) new cogeneration facilities that use natural gas or biomass as fuel; (ii) modifications of existing cogeneration facilities that use gas as fuel; and (iii) modifications of existing facilities that use oil derivatives or coal in order to transform them into facilities that use natural gas as fuel.

The Draft Royal Decree and the Proposed Order can be accessed here.

Third auction of the new economic regime for renewable energies

The Secretary of State for Energy has submitted to public information the proposed Resolution whereby the third auction for the granting of the Renewable Energy Economic Regime (REER) will be called pursuant to the provisions of Order TED/1161/2020, of 4 December. The auction will continue with the pay as bid method provided for the previous auctions.

Additionally, the proposed Resolution provides for the following reserves: (i) 200 MW for solar thermoelectric technology with at least 6 hours of energy storage; (ii) 100 MW for cogeneration facilities using biomass as their main fuel; (iii) 40 MW for cogeneration facilities using biomass as their main fuel and with an installed capacity of less than 20 MW; and (iv) 20 MW for other technologies. It also reserves a total of 140 MW of photovoltaic installed capacity to be distributed at a local level.

The proposed Resolution can be accessed here.

NATIONAL MEASURES RELATED TO THE GAS SECTOR

Circular 9/2021, of 15 December, from the Spanish Securities Market and Anti-trust Commission.

On 20 December 2021, Circular 9/2021, of 15 December, from the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), amending Circular 8/2019, of 12 December, which establishes the methodology and conditions for access and capacity allocation in the natural gas system (Circular 9/2021), was published in the Official State Gazette.

Circular 9/2021 amends Circular 8/2019, with the main purpose of introducing new congestion management and capacity anti-hoarding mechanisms in an attempt to deal with congestion situations. In addition, other aspects have been revised, such as:

• The congestion of any of the needed infrastructures for the complete provision of a given service that may jeopardise the operation of the system has been included as a new cause for refusal of access to gas infrastructures.
• Users of plant-to-ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) loading services must notify facilities' operators and the Technical System Operator the use of the loaded LNG.
• The allocation procedures for individual firm capacity products at regasification plants related to annual and monthly slots are modified so that, whenever the sum of the requests received for all plants is greater than the total number of slots offered, a market mechanism (auction) will be applied to adjust demand to supply. When the sum of the requests received for all the plants is less than or equal to the total number of slots offered, those slots whose demand does not exceed the supply in a given plant for a given month and those for which there is no more than one request, shall be directly allocated.
• The capacity reservation parameters for short-term contracts, which will be set by the CNMC by means of a resolution after hearing the affected parties, are modified.
• The secondary capacity market is modified, establishing the possibility of buying and selling or subletting contracted capacity with premium to third parties with access rights, although price limitations are established.
• New mechanisms are introduced for the use or loss of capacity for such products other than daily and intraday products, as well as anti-hoarding measures for those products that involve slots.

Circular 9/2021 can be accessed here.

NATIONAL MEASURES AFFECTING BOTH SECTORS

PERTE of renewable energies, green hydrogen and storage

On 14 December 2021, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) for Renewable Energies, Green Hydrogen and Storage.

This PERTE includes 25 transformative measures aimed at the development of technology, industrial capacities, new business models and their implementation as well as 17 developing measures, with potential to generate more than 280,000 jobs.

The abovementioned PERTE has a budget of € 6,920 million which will be allocated to the development of infrastructures that contribute to the achievement of decarbonisation objectives, but especially to the development of offshore wind facilities and other marine energies, storage technologies and green hydrogen production facilities.

The content of the PERTE can be accessed here.

GREEN HYDROGEN

Criteria for participation in the so-called "Major Projects of Common European Interest"

The Secretary of State for Energy has issued the Resolution establishing the criteria for participation in the so-called "Major (Hydrogen) Projects of Common European Interest - PIICE", which include, among others (i) a significant innovative element or significant added value in terms of R&D&I; (ii) the participation of more than one Member State; or (iii) the obligation of the project promoter to participate in the co-financing of the project.

For these purposes, Spain shall communicate to the European Commission, as a potential participant, the information submitted in response to the two hydrogen expressions of interest already held, although new projects that meet the eligibility criteria may also be submitted during the decision process of the PIICE mechanism as long as the deadline remains open at European level.

The content of the Resolution can be accessed here.

Regulatory basis for the granting of aid based on the program of incentives to the innovation on and further knowledge about green hydrogen

On 24 December 2021, Order TED/1444/2021, of 22 December, approving the regulatory basis for the granting of aid corresponding to the programme of incentives for the green hydrogen innovation and knowledge value chain within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, was published in the Spanish Official Gazette.

The purpose of this Order is to set out the regulatory basis for the selection and award of public aid, on a competitive basis, corresponding to the 4 support programmes for the Green Hydrogen Industrial Value Chain:

• Capacities, technological breakthroughs and deployment of test and/or manufacturing lines;
• Design, demonstration and validation of hydrogen powered mobility;
• Large-scale electrolysis demonstrations - innovative projects for green hydrogen production; and
• Fundamental research challenges, innovative pilots and training in key enabling technologies within the value chain.

The purpose of these grants will be (i) to contribute to the development of technological advances or prototypes in the green hydrogen value chain and (ii) to the implementation of test facilities or new manufacturing lines for small and medium companies. The calls for applications will be made by the IDAE, and the deadline for submitting projects will be 2 months.

The content of the Order can be accessed here.

Regulatory basis for the granting of aid corresponding to the programme of incentives for pioneering and unique green hydrogen projects

On 24 December 2021, Order TED/1445/2021, of 22 December, approving the regulatory basis for the granting of public aid corresponding to the programme of incentives for pioneering and unique green hydrogen projects within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, was published in the Spanish Official Gazette.

The purpose of the Order is to establish the regulatory basis for the selection and award, on a competitive basis, of public aid for those integral projects that combine, in an aggregate manner, the production, distribution and use of green hydrogen in the same location enabling the replacement of grey hydrogen in industrial centres that are already hydrogen consumers, as well as the integration of the production and supply of green hydrogen in new transport uses, industry thermal uses and certain stationary uses.

The content of the Order can be accessed here.