WSHPDR_2013_Final_Report-updated_version

growing difficulty to obtain the necessary construction
sites as the land-owners are demanding higher
compensations to make them available. It is also
important to state the difficulty felt to obtain grid
connection for affordable prices and that there have
been problems with the expiration of concessions of
existing plants with no solution on the horizon.
Another important administrative and economic
hurdle is the pre-allocation registration, where all
renewable electricity production units must be
included before being allowed to join the Special
Regime and that has established a vast number of
preconditions as described above (cf. power granting
schemes).
With the moratorium ii in place, especially if it became
effective for a longer period and having in mind the
long lead times of new small hydropower facilities in
Spain, it is more likely that the new national small
hydropower target for 2020 (both in the Spanish
National Renewable Energy Action Plan in the new
PER 2011-2020) of 2,185 MW will not be fulfilled.
In any case, even to fulfill these (very) modest small
hydropower targets for 2020, besides maintaining a
stable and foreseeable support scheme for small
hydropower within the Special Regime, it will be
necessary to establish measures such as:
New rules for administrative procedures and
concessions:
Streamlining current procedures for water
planning in the river sections where hydropower
plants can be implemented under certain
conditions, such as residual flows.
Establish a new unified administrative procedure
for water concessions, or modification of the
existing ones, applicable for hydropower plants
up to 50 MW.
Promotion of tenders in existing public
infrastructures, with new rules for the renovation
of concessions and the possibility of modification
of concessions already granted.
Establish the possibility to modify existing water
concessions for electricity generation by the
responsible authority (i.e. to avoid the process of
competing for water concession in cases where
the modification does not cause an increase or
decrease of the maximum flow nor of the
capacity installed greater than 50 per cent of the
originally amounts granted and consistent with
the River Basin Management Plan in force).
Develop a regulatory framework to promote the
development of reversible hydropower plants or
expand existing ones. Take advantage of existing
infrastructure, consistent with current water
planning and preserving the environmental.
Incentivize the rehabilitation, modernization
and/or replacement of existing small hydropower.
Promote the rise of the available hydropower
potential in the territory of the Hydrographic
Confederations iii by conducting specific studies to
analyze the technical, economic and environmental
feasibility of up to 41 state-owned dams to be used as
hydropower plants and drafting of the specifications
that will serve as a basis for tenders for those
classified as viable. 3
Notes
i. In February 2013, the Spanish Government decided
to abolish the remuneration option for Renewable
Energy Directive (RES-E) power based on the market
price and feed-in premium. It changed the mechanism
of indexing RES-E remuneration to the consumer price
index and decoupled it from food and fuel price
increases. 4
ii. The Spanish administration passed down the Royal
Decree 1/2012 that suspends feed-in tariffs for newly
installed generators of renewable power.
iii. The Hydrographic Confederations are public
entities in charge of river basins under the Ministry of
Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs of Spain; and
autonomous bodies under the Department of State
for Water and Rural Affairs.
References
1. Central Intelligence Agency (2012). The World
Factbook. Available from
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook.
2. Red Electrica de Espana (2012). 2011 The Spanish
Electricity System. Madrid, Spain.
3. European Small Hydropower Association and
Intelligent Energy Europe (2012). Stream Map for
Small Hydropower in the EU-27 in the view of the
2020 targets. Available from
www.streammap.esha.be/.
4. Couture, T.D., Bechberger, M. (2013). Pain in Spain:
New Retroactive Changes Hinder Renewable Energy,
19 April 2013. Renewable Energy World. Available
from
www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2
013/04/pain-in-spain-new-retroactive-changeshinders-renewable-energy?cmpid=rss.
New frameworks/incentives for new types of plants
and for rehabilitation, modernization and
replacement of facilities:
387