The Government wants to take a step forward in the development of self-consumption in Spain. At a conference organised by the Fundación Renovables, Joan Groizard, Director General of the IDAE, said that the Ministry will introduce new regulations to promote shared self-consumption.

This is what they have called hourly distribution, a new improvement that will establish a criterion for each hour of the day, said Groizard. The IDAE's director general explained that, for example, in a public building, the building will use the solar energy installed by means of panels when it is operational, when it is working, but that during weekends, holidays or the month of August it can use the energy generated and that it will be shared with other consumers who need that electricity.

"It is not shared self-consumption, but it is an important advance that, as I say, will come to fruition as soon as this state of alarm is over," said Groizard.

The IDAE, he said, continues to work to make dynamic self-consumption progress, but at the moment they need to work more on it so that it can be developed in the future. "We will need to go hand in hand with the energy communities."

Auctions in 2020

In addition, the IDAE's general manager has assured that this year the renewable energy auctions that the sector has been waiting for so long will be launched. Groizard said that "we are doing everything we can to ensure that there are auctions in 2020. In order for the PNIEC to be fulfilled there must be one already this year".

"We want staggered and orderly growth, although there are many projects in the pipeline that are only launched with the auctions. Everyone should be able to develop renewables, not just the big ones, we want them to be competitive," he explained.

Groizard went a step further and stated that "what we are assessing is a change to make it more similar to the surrounding countries, to open the door to more players, more competition, and to transfer the savings to the consumer, and to achieve this it requires a series of changes".