Red Eléctrica, as the operator of the electricity system, made public last 20 June the new access capacities of the nodes that make up the transmission grid for the connection of future renewable energy generation facilities.
This new update takes into account the possible scenarios in the electricity planning set out for 2026, which was approved in March of this year. Any node that exceeds 100 MW of capacity will become a node subject to tender.
The calculation of this access capacity is updated monthly and carried out in accordance with the guidelines set out in the specifications of the Resolution of 20 May 2021 of the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC).
The Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (MITECO) has made public the draft ministerial order to call a tender for access capacity at 17 nodes of the electricity transmission grid, in which 5.8 GW of capacity will be awarded to renewable energy and storage facilities.
The Ministry explains that environmental and socio-economic criteria will be applied to ensure the creation of wealth in the areas hosting the facilities and the protection of the natural environment, as well as technological and time-based criteria to encourage self-consumption and accelerate the growth of clean generation.
The body has stressed that the nodes selected for the tender are the most in demand by volume of power requested in each autonomous community over the last two years. Once a node per community has been selected, the total power level is established according to the interest generated in the sector. Valencia, Madrid and Catalonia will each have two nodes, being the communities with the most power included in the competitive procedure.
Criteria for awarding the auction
- Time-based criteria. The commitment date for energy injection by the new facilities will be assessed, and more points will be awarded the more they are brought forward relative to the deadline for becoming operational, set at five years from obtaining the access permits.
- Technology-related criteria. The degree of self-consumption will be taken into account (more points the higher this degree), the existence of storage, hybridisation, repowering… One of the rules states that, in order to be awarded the tender, at least 25% of the maximum score must be obtained in these criteria.
- Socio-economic criteria. These criteria will consider the number of direct jobs created around the project; the percentage of participation of investors, companies and local administrations; the mechanism for reinvesting income in the area; the lesser expropriation of land and the impact on the industrial value chain. The location in territories facing the demographic challenge will also be considered.
- Environmental criteria. They will consider the lesser environmental impact of the project, both of the electricity generation facility and of the energy evacuation lines, in accordance with the environmental zoning for renewable energy, as well as registration in the carbon footprint registry. To win the tender, at least 40% of the maximum score must be obtained in these environmental criteria, and a non-zero score must be achieved for the environmental impact of the facility and the line, respectively.
In order to take part in the tender, participants must set up the financial guarantees that will be used to cover the non-payment of penalties for breaching the time commitments for energy injection (25% of the estimated cost of the energy not produced), as well as the socio-economic ones, those for environmental impact and for the activation of areas facing the demographic challenge, at €40/kW installed.
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