The government’s ‘Energy Saving Plan’, includes a wide-ranging series of energy-saving measures focused on public buildings, transport hubs, cultural spaces, hotels, shops, department stores and other commercial spaces.
The first part of the plan focuses mainly on lighting and temperature control, which includes the requirement for window lighting to be turned off by 10pm and for the air conditioning to be set at a minimum of 27C in summer and the heat a maximum of 19C in winter.
The plan comes into force this Wednesday from 10pm, however, by midnight on Tuesday and into the early hours on Wednesday morning, many of Spain’s public buildings and large department stores had already gone dark.
Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, explained that the measures will be in force until at least November 1st 2023.
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Will all establishments have to set their air conditioning to a limit of 27C in summer?
It was originally reported that all establishments would have to set their aircon to a minimum of 27C, however, later on August 5th, Ribera confirmed that the rule to limit indoor temperatures is “flexible” and that bars and restaurants would not be required to set the aircon at 27C exactly.
“If a different temperature is set, but it is justified, it will be allowed,” Teresa Ribera said in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio. With regards to bars and restaurants, the minister confirmed that “the working legislation recommends the temperature to be around 25C,” she explained later on Onda Cero radio.
Other places such as nightclubs, gyms, hospitals, trains, and buses will also not need to set the temperature to a minimum of 27C in summer and the heat to a maximum of 19C in winter. They are to be given slightly more flexibility.
Establishments that will have to abide by the strict temperature limit, however, will include supermarkets, transport hubs such as airports and train stations, shopping malls, public administration buildings and cultural venues.
The decree states that health and safety provisions in the workplace prevail over the plan, which sets a temperature of between 17C and 27C in places where sedentary work is carried out, and between 14C and 25C where light work is carried out.
The Spanish government has calculated that for each degree the thermostat is turned up in summer and down in winter, it will save 7 percent in gas consumption.
Which buildings will go dark?
From Wednesday night, according to the decree only shop windows and public buildings that are closed and empty after 10pm must turn off their lights. If they are open past this time, the lights can stay on.
The restriction does not apply to illuminated monuments, signs or billboards, meaning that icons such as Barcelona’s Sagrada Família, Madrid’s Cibeles Fountain and Seville’s La Giralda will stay lit past 10pm.
The rules will also not affect street lighting, so streets will remain well-lit to avoid safety concerns.
“The new measures will apply to buildings. The rules do not apply to exterior lighting, either street lighting, or lighting for ornamental reasons in places other than buildings,” Ribera pointed out last week.
The aim of the plan is to increase energy saving and efficiency, cut costs, encourage a move to more sustainable fuels and renewable energy, amid climate change and a volatile energy market caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.