Competition knocks down the attempt by renewable companies to ‘resurrect’ dozens of projects

2023-09-20 07:31:46

The renewable sector suffered a few months ago a massive screening of projects for new green facilities In process. Last January, hundreds of renewable plants did not obtain the mandatory environmental impact declaration (DIA) to continue with the long process of obtaining administrative permits to start producing in a few years.

Energy groups are required to meet strict deadlines for obtaining administrative permits to stay alive and not lose their coveted connection point to the electrical grid, which would force them to return to the starting box of a llong bureaucratic career that lasts about five years. Last January, projects with a combined power of about 15,000 megawatts (MW) were left out of the processing, approximately a fifth of all those that opted to pass that phase.

The snip has caused dozens of companies to file formal complaints against the decision of Spanish Electrical Network, the manager of the high-voltage networks, to withdraw network access permission from projects that did not obtain the mandatory EIS. The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has received more than a hundred conflicts presented by the affected companies and is rejecting them en masse.

“The CNMC is making an effort to resolve the conflicts that the agents of the system present. In the last five months, 110 conflicts have been received relating to the withdrawal of access permits, of which the CNMC has already resolved 82“, sources from the supervisory body confirm to El Periódico de España, from the Prensa Ibérica group.

Rejected claims

All that have already been resolved have been rejected, confirming the decision of REE that apply the current legislation and proceed to the automatic withdrawal of network access permission if it did not meet the mandatory milestone of having the environmental declaration at the end of last January. Among the rejected claims are projects from companies such as Iberdrola, Solaria or Capital Energy.

“For now, the conflicts that did not have the administrative act in time (environmental impact declaration or prior administrative authorization) or the same was negative have been dismissed,” official sources from the CNMC emphasize. “And none in these circumstances can be resolved favorably,” they say.

The great sieve

The Government and the autonomous communities, depending on the size of the project, rejected last January (or in the case of some Autonomous Communities, they did not even have time to study due to the administrative collapse) renewable projects with a combined power of just over 15,000 megawatts (MW), 20.6% of the total petitions presented. After the rejection, their right to connect to the electrical grid was withdrawn, as recorded in the application records of Red Eléctrica de España (REE). Among the scrapped projects were 10,500 MW of solar photovoltaics and 4,500 MW of wind farms.

Last January projects with a joint power of 58,000 MW did obtain the mandatory DIA to move forward with your plans. It was just one bureaucratic stage of the several that energy companies will have to overcome until they have the plants up and running.

After obtaining the environmental declaration, the vast majority of projects in the pipeline obtained prior administrative authorization from the central government or the communities before April 25 and then had to obtain administrative construction authorization before July 25 (although The central government approved an extension of six additional months, until the end of January, to achieve it). Subsequently, they must obtain authorization for connection to the network and commissioning, with the aim of being operational by mid-2025.