large industry using cogeneration The company, which produces electricity by utilizing the heat resulting from the activities of its factories in sectors such as ceramics, paper and food, is launching a new SOS by demanding legal reforms that have been promised for a long time but have not been realized. It saved dozens of its facilities in Spain from being compromised.
Factories with around 600 cogeneration plants in the Spanish market, wage guaranteed by law Through Re-scoring system (the same as previously used by premium-charging, regulated renewables) and their quantities are reviewed every six months.
Cogeneration plants complain The government has left a comprehensive reform of this cogeneration fee calculation model pending before the 23J elections He also criticizes the calls for making the market more flexible towards energy prices for a huge delay. auctions for the issuance of regulated fees to facilities with a total power of 1,200 megawatts (MW).
Tenders were announced in 2021, with the aim of submitting at least three bids, one each year, until 2024. The Ministry of Ecological Transition even published the operating rules of these tenders for public information. However, these meetings have not been held since then and there is no specific date for them to take place. Faced with this situation, Acogen and Cogen sector employer associations organized a joint sectoral congress in Madrid this Tuesday. Temporary measures to prevent closure of dozens of facilities while these auctions are ongoing.
800 million investment is on hold
They welcome and receive Spain They are asking the Government for a two-year extension so that cogeneration plants, which will soon reach the end of their useful life (25 years), can continue to operate and with that they lose their current regulated rates. Each year, 30 to 40 facilities meet this temporary limit. Pedro Sánchez’s executive had already implemented a two-year extension of these features in 2018, a few months after the no-confidence motion that ousted Mariano Rajoy, to prevent the closure of many cogeneration plants.
“Now, the new charging methodology foreseen in Royal Decree No. 6/2022 of 29 March and the approval of orders for cogeneration tenders must be completed. PNIECIt allows companies to plan medium- and long-term investments,” emphasized Ruben Hernando, president of Acogen, at the annual congress.
The association emphasized that the planned cogeneration tenders will enable the opening. “A new cycle of industrial investment that will mobilize more than €800 million across hundreds of sectors.” It is an investment that companies hold on to because they are unclear about the compensation they can receive and whether it will be profitable for them to continue operating.
“Cogeneration auction framework 1,200MW It has been completed for two years. Dozens of industries have been waiting for this call since then, and with the call being delayed every year due to the energy crisis and the current economic situation, the risk of displacement increases further for European rival countries that support cogeneration and encourage construction. the establishment of new facilities and the transition of existing ones, because these are the most efficient technology available,” both employers complain.
An ‘extreme’ patch
600 Spanish cogeneration plants they already drew in extreme Complete cessation of activity on July 1 if management had not taken measures that continuing the operation would have resulted in a loss of millions of dollars. The government is included in the last macro decree At the end of the previous legislature, before the 23J elections, an extraordinary reform of electricity and gas price forecasts was carried out, which was used to ensure an improvement in the fees charged from renewables and cogeneration (but with a special impact on cogeneration). sector) in the second half of this year.
The government included an update on the fee parameters of these facilities in the royal decree. 2023-2025 period Improving wages with an extra injection of 180 million from the regulated income of renewable and cogeneration plants for the whole year and an additional 20 million extra injections for cogeneration plants alone, corresponding to the first half of the year.
The solution offered at the time was a patch. The government is working on A comprehensive reform of the pricing model but this issue, which is not currently approved, will be dealt with later by the next Government. The Ministry, led by Teresa Ribera, had already initiated a proposal for a new methodology for calculating the sector’s wages; this represented an improvement from the current level of 33%; This meant that companies would receive approximately 1.5 billion per year. But it has not been confirmed for now and the Executive saved the match ball ahead of the summer by making an extraordinary adjustment to the parameters of the current system.
Cogeneration plants are no longer exempt from the Recore fee or the Iberian exemption (a limit on the price of gas used to generate electricity to reduce the price of electricity and compensates for the actual gas cost of the facilities), but has been disabled for months due to low gas prices.