Between the years 2018 and 2020 the generation renewable energy experienced unstoppable growth requests to connect to the electrical grid This increased the 2030 target sevenfold. Many of them had no purpose other than gaining access to the network in order to sell them later at a higher price. HE speculative license stacking again flies over the sector, but at the other end of the network: sueWith “extraordinarily rapid growth” Access requests alerting the governmentAccording to the eighth package of ‘anti-crisis’ measures.
The Executive’s suspicion is based on “figures” provided by the Government. transportation and distribution network managers – namely Red Electrica and the big companies (Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy and EDP)– to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, but neither he nor Red Eléctrica (a state-controlled company with 20% of its capital through SEPI) wanted to provide these figures at the request of this medium. These data provide a “strong increase in access requests networks to connect new consumption in “recent months”; but in some cases the projects behind these demands are “rapidly evolving”“No in others.”.
there is spain 45,087 kilometers of electrical cables, responsible for carrying this energy from the body From production to consumption. Until now, planning has been done on the basis of production needs and forecasts of the installation of new renewable energy facilities or consumption needs conveyed by companies based on consumers’ habits. But in recent months a new paradigm: one of these big consumers, Those who want to connect to the network electrification of consumption We no longer need industries that use other energy sources (e.g. chemicals) or new consumers.
Three types of consumers
The government’s fears about possible speculation are aimed at the latter, since the growth in question is mainly three types of consumers with almost no impact on current consumption: production facilities hydrogen, data processing centers and facilities to store.
“The eventual hoarding of network access permissions, combined with the fact that consumer access permissions do not have a clearly defined expiration date, leads to massive consumption, I would recommend” take action allowing to avoid speculative hoarding of the same for projects They do not have clear visibility For its development,” the Manager justifies.
new regulation
At this point the Government decided to launch an initiative. new regulation This reveals that where present: competition for access to demand The allocation of the transport network at a particular node is carried out “through a procedure”. competitionhere “criteria project maturity, volume of relevant investments and contribution decarbonization increasing demand for energy, among others.”
It introduces others with the same purpose and a more general character. two measurements. On the one hand, the organization guarantee For projects connected to networks with a voltage equal to or higher than 36 kilowatts (kV), that is, large consumption projects, will need to provide money that will not be refunded if they do not fulfill their plans. And on the other hand, it establishes: Expiration of access and connection permissions If a technical access contract for a power equivalent to at least 50% of the access capacity of the permit is not concluded within 5 years from the date of obtaining the permit.
new hole
In the case of permits already issued, the Government transition process to create necessary guarantees And expiration times They will begin to be counted as soon as this royal decree comes into force this Friday.
Thus, it is trying to stop something similar to what happened four years ago in renewable energy. So it is Ministry of Ecological Transition Developed a standard that determines the maximum time for promoters from the moment they request access and connection to the network to the moment they activate the network; Five yearsAlthough the ‘anti-crisis’ decree extended this period to a maximum of eight years before the crisis bottleneck was created in the administration.