Bureaucracy wastes thousands of hours of electricity produced with photovoltaic panels in self-consumption facilities. The Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) condemns this 19 percent of the energy produced by these facilities is lost because their owners cannot transfer their excess energy to the grid. The problem arises, first of all, in companies that in the last two years have opted for self-consumption to reduce electricity bills and see how all electricity consumption occurs. Surplus earned on weekends goes to waste Despite the energy crisis experienced by Spain It is necessary to burn gas to produce electricity. Association of Renewable Energy Companies (APPA) measured this 160 million euros were wasted last year throughout the country due to the impossibility of pouring the excess into the network.
bureaucratic obstacles
The consumer group insists that the Administration is responsible for the problem. The association regrets the request for “disproportionate and complex municipal fees or technical requirements.” This makes it difficult for owners of self-consumption plates to pour their excess into the grid. Another critical point of the process is “bad practices of distributors” From electricity. They sometimes make it difficult to formalize individual contracts with the opening of businesses. multiple files for the same contractdelays the activation of self-consumption. Other times, Prohibiting a consumer from being associated with more than one self-consumption when legislation allows this. And in other cases they force the owner changing connectivity or network capabilities, changes that the distributor actually has to make and whose costs double the budget With a foul mouth.”
10,000 euros
a businessman affected by such obstacles He confirmed that he had finally stopped throwing away his excess On Saturdays and Sundays, we connect to the grid despite wasting electricity. “We Iberdrola asked us for an authentication device certified by them. We already had in our facility It is one of these devices and it costs 10,000 euros. “We decided not to move forward.”
delays
One industry professional emphasizes: delays in processing permits Ministry of Industry, despite insists The situation has improved significantly after the launch of the new Consell. “The problem affects companies that set up self-consumption facilities to save on their bills. The impossibility of transferring the increased production surplus to the grid, Losses that can reach up to 1,500 euros per month. “This means that it takes seven years for a self-consumer plant to be amortized instead of five,” he laments. The professional emphasizes that distributors “make their rules.”
complex process
A spokesman for Iberdrola’s distribution company i-DE assures that the company facilitates self-consumption. “Be aware that the process can be complexAt i-DE we have been working for over a year on communication and engagement with installers and professional associations, and the Administration itself, to clarify technical and regulatory details.
Waste
In any case, OCU calls for “an end to the enormous waste of energy caused by the delay in connecting the plant to the power grid”. For this purpose, the consumer group requests the relevant administrations to agree on a common and simple procedure and to assign the necessary personnel to speed up the processes. “Distributors must automatically put an end to illegal practices and undertake technical changes appropriate to them in accordance with the law. Otherwise, they must be sanctioned by the National Market and Competition Commission in an appropriate and exemplary manner,” the OCU says in a statement.