Connection procedure
To connect a plant to the grid, the project developer must first apply for and obtain the access and connection permits. The authority will verify that the request meets all requisites and that there is sufficient capacity. After the permits are issued, the producers and the grid operator will enter into a contract.
Rules concerning the connection of a new producer to the grid
Spanish regulations establish that the construction of generation plants (and the facilities or connection nodes associated with them) require Administrative Authorization as per Law 24/2013, Art. 53a). i.e., Preliminary administrative authorization to prove that the proposed facilities comply with the necessary technical and security standards as well as an environmental impact assessment, also, the location of the facilities is consistent with land planning requirements.
However, this could only be granted if a Grid access and connection permit was previously obtained (see NCMC circular 1/2021 of 20 January for further requirements). Depending on the infrastructure, various other permits could be necessary, such as planning requirements, municipal activity licenses, or water authorisations.
To sum up, the construction of new energy production plants is also subject to strict environmental control, and an environmental impact assessment must be undertaken in order to assess how the plant affects the surroundings and the actions to be taken to prevent and mitigate the risk of environmental damage. This must be presented to the appropriate authority (usually at the regional level) and an Integrated environmental authorisation (IEA) is issued, which establishes the environmental conditions that the generation plant must comply with. The IEA process was temporally speed up by Royal Decree-Law 20/2022, Art. 22 & 23 by an express authorization procedure covering all sizes of RES installations.
Then, Approval of the execution project (construction) is required. A technical project must be developed together with a responsible declaration to endorse the compliment of the applicable regulations, among other things. Approval of the construction project means approval of the engineering construction project necessary for the works to start. Lastly, the Operating license must be obtained, without which the relevant facility cannot start its commercial operation.
In general, depending on the capacity of the generation plant, the above approvals will be granted either by the Spanish central authorities or by regional authorities, depending on the capacity of the generation plant.
Rules for connecting RES and storage to the grid
According to article 26.2 of Law 24/2013, producers of electricity from renewable energy sources and high-efficiency cogeneration shall have priority access and connection to the grid, under terms to be determined by regulation, based on objective, transparent and non-discriminatory criteria. RD 1183/2020 established that the criterion for awarding the concession of access to the grid will be that of temporary priority; however, in order to promote the penetration of renewable energies, there are exceptions to this rule:
- In the cases of the hybridisation of existing generation facilities
- In specific nodes where power capacity is made available, the government can call for an access capacity auction where only renewable energy projects will be able to participate (articles 7, 18, and 27, RD 1183/2020).
Royal Decree 23/2020 introduced modifications to Law 24/2013, of December 26, of the Electricity Sector, in order to eliminate administrative barriers to support RES deployment and integration.
Title I, Art. 1&2 “regulate the conditions to maintain and gain access and connection to the transmission and distribution to the electricity transmission and distribution networks, taking into account the technical feasibility and soundness of the projects focus on RES projects”. Art. 3 integrates a modification to “Royal Decree 1955/2000, of December 1, which regulates the transport, distribution, commercialization activities of transmission, distribution, commercialization, supply and authorization procedures for the procedures for the authorization of electric energy facilities”.
With the objective of increasing the utilisation and management of renewable energy, Art. 4 “enables hybridisation, i.e., access to the same point in the grid of installations of the grid of installations using different generation technologies, provided that this is technically possible”. Lastly, in line with Directive 2019/944 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 of 5 June 2019 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity, “include urgently in the Spanish legislation the storage figure definition and conditions to be integrated in the grid”. In addition to supporting new business models, include the aggregators' figure and the definition of renewable energy communities.
RE producers shall apply for and obtain access and a connection permit to the distribution and/or transmission network. Both permits are treated and processed as one single application, and the single point of contact for the applicant is the TSO or the DSO (article 5, RD 1183/2020). The main steps are:
- The applicant must submit to the authority proof of having deposited a financial guarantee of €40/kW installed (article 23, RD 1183/2020)
- Submission of a request for access and connection permits to the TSO or DSO
- The authority assesses the availability of access capacity and the connection requirements
- If the authority accepts the request, it will communicate the conditions to the applicant, and if she accepts this preproposal, the permits will be issued.
- Once the project obtains all the required administrative authorisations, a technical access contract shall be signed between the parties (article 21, RD 1183/2020).
- Execution of connection works.
- Connection of the plant to the grid.
Specifications for islands, isolated grids, microgrids, local grids, etc.
The TSO for islands is also REE, and the connection to the grid of RES installations is sheltered by the previous question. The particularities, when applicable, are introduced by each Autonomous Community's rules and the local DSOs operating in the area.
Exceptions
In the Spanish legal framework, Royal Decree-Law 23/2020 covers specifications for peninsular and non-peninsular regions and it introduces the definition for energy communities. These are defined as “legal entities based on open and voluntary participation, autonomous and effectively controlled by partners or members that are located in the vicinity of renewable energy projects owned and developed by such legal entities, whose partners or members are natural persons, SMEs or local authorities, including municipalities and whose primary purpose is to provide environmental, economic or social benefits to their partners or members or to the local areas where they operate, rather than financial gain". Therefore, these communities can rely on installations of any energy vector, as long as it is renewable.
Possibilities to differentiate RES in scale and technology
Referring to connection to the grid, installations shall follow a similar process, independent of technology. Smaller installations could benefit from fast procedures, depending on the Autonomous Community, such as ´Comunidad Autonóma de Madrid´, to ease the development of the self-consumption market.