Spain unveils new provisions for self-consumption regulation

The Spanish government has proposed a Royal Decree with new self-consumption regulation which is expected to be approved in March or April. According to the new rules, power surpluses may be shared with other consumers or fed to the grid.

Spain is mulling a novel self-consumption regime.

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From pv magazine Spain.

After approving new technical and administrative rules for electricity self-consumption in December, the Spanish government has opened a public consultation – until next Friday – on a Royal Decree containing the provisions.

The proposal includes a form of self-consumption that does not involve surplus energy being fed into the grid, in addition to the usual net metering provisions. Systems outside the net metering regime would not require permission for grid connection.

For net metering systems above 100 kW in size, a mechanism would enable owners to share surplus power with consumers nearby or to inject it into the grid.

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The shared self-consumption model would be allowed only for projects connected to an internal network of associated consumers or linked to them through direct lines; that are connected to the low voltage network linked to the same transformation center; that are connected for generation and consumption to the low voltage grid at a distance between them of less than 500 meters; and that are located, for generation and consumption, in the same cadastral reference – zip code. Compensation would be paid monthly and any excess energy left over each month would be lost.

Under the proposal, a simplified compensation mechanism would consist of an economic balance between the energy consumed in the billing period with either an hourly rate or a fixed market price, with generators permitted to sell energy under only one arrangement.

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