Good practice:

Decarbonising thanks to the renewable self-consumption guide for Andalusian local municipal entities

Given the lack of knowledge by local public entities (LPE) on the developments in self-consumption regulations in Spain, the opportunities offered by self-consumption and the ways in which LPEs can participate and promote self-consumption in their municipalities, the Andalusian Energy Agency (AEA) disseminates a digital guide, in order to promote demonstrative and exemplary installations, detailing:
• updated regulations
• types of renewable self-consumption
• administrative and technical procedures to follow
• examples already carried out
• recommendations such as the simplification of the technical and administrative procedure
• municipal tax credits.
In addition to offering practical and detailed information to LPEs on energy self-consumption, the guide offers a model/template of specifications to facilitate public employees carrying out the public tenders necessary for the contracting of self-consumption facilities, both for the project and for the material implementation. In this way, bureaucratic procedures are greatly facilitated, in addition to overcoming the obstacle posed by lack of experience and the scarcity of other similar tenders that could serve as a reference.
The guide has been distributed among members of the “Round Table for Self-Consumption in Andalusia” which groups all the agents involved, under the coordination of the AEA. The Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FAMP) has incorporated this guide in its training courses.

522 hours of specialised personnel

In December 2020, the guide was consulted more than 1,000 times through the website of the AEA, and it has been disseminated through FAMP courses to more than 300 local agents in 142 Andalusian municipalities.

The training courses will continue in 2021.

The only difficulty was obtaining data from the installer companies of existing installations to provide examples in the guide.

Among the lessons learned, the need to standardise the procedures for all municipalities since each municipality acts differently is highlighted.

The creation and distribution of a guide of this type is a good practice that can be transferred to any region that wishes to empower its LPEs as key actors in simplifying procedures for users and also as executors of self-consumption in municipal facilities (schools, sports centres, etc.).

The creation of standard contracting specifications for the project and material implementation of self-consumption facilities in LPEs is an example to be followed by other regions as a means of training for municipalities and other local entities to participate in self-consumption.