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SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REGULATION AND POLICYMAKING TRAINING MANUALpage 9.66The main regulatory body for all energy sources in Spain is the National EnergyCommission (Comisión Nacional de Energía—CNE). CNE is attached to the Ministryof Economy. It acts to set budgets, to ensure that licences are complied with andto settle any disputes arising from regulation. CNE is responsible for oversightof the legislatively mandated payments made to renewable energy sources.2.1. Spanish renewable energy policySpanish policy at the national level has been founded on the twin pillars of aREFIT-style subsidy scheme and of generous capital subsidies. However, regionalpolicies have also played an important role in both making wind energy projectseconomic and in encouraging the growth of new turbine manufacturers.One important aspect of Spanish law, which already favoured renewables in themid 1990s, was the existence of an obligation introduced in 1987 via RoyalDecree, on distribution companies to purchase all electricity from independentpower producers at a fixed rate. The intended effect of this being to minimizeany problems that Spanish wind turbine owners might face from utilities hostileto the use of renewables.Spanish wind energy development, and renewable energy development generally,is under the purview of a national renewable energy plan, which forms oneaspect of the Energy Savings and Efficiency Plan (PAEE).A wide-ranging national policy on renewables effectively began in 1994 with RoyalDecree 2366/1994. This formed the legal basis for the provision of feed-in tariffsfor electricity from renewable sources with a capacity under 100MW. The decreeinstituted a tariff at a rate of 80-90 per cent of the average final consumer pricepaid for electricity, with the specific rate calculated on an annual basis. Until thelate 1990s this was typically calculated to equal 88.5 per cent. In 1994, applicationof this rate amounted to an increase in the tariff available to wind from the10 peseta/kWh (€0.063/kWh) rate typically paid to IPPs, up to 11.57 pta/kWh(€0.073/kWh). The tariff was guaranteed to be paid for a five-year period in orderto provide increased stability to the market and to thus help encourage investment.A 1997 adjustment altered the payment scheme, effectively offering developersa choice of two payment schemes. They could opt to receive either a fixed price,in 1997 this being equal to €0.066/kWh, or a variable price based on the averageprice paid by consumers for all electricity consumed domestically in Spain,plus an environmental bonus. In 1997 this variable price worked out to€0.034/kWh, with an environmental bonus of €0.032/kWh, making the two practicallythe same, though this was not a matter of deliberate policy (WindDirections 1999). This figure was also intended to include a consideration for
MODULE 9: RENEWABLE ENERGY: REGULATORY AND POLICY OPTIONSpage 9.67those avoided costs for the distributor, which would otherwise be incurred in theprocess of purchasing from traditional large-scale generators (Cerveny and Resch,1998). Controversially, the payment was reduced, by an average of 5.48 per cent,at the end of 1999 as part of a round of government cuts (WPM 2000).The adjustment made in 1997, introduced as part of a general electricity lawthrough Royal Decree 54/1997, included the codicil that the new payment regimewould apply only to those installations with a maximum generating capacity of50 MW. Any problem which this might have presented to new large-scale projectsappears to have been circumvented through the breaking down of projectsinto pieces resulting in components with generating capacities less than this limitand presenting them as being separate, even where they are practically adjacent.Further regulation concerning payments stems from Royal Decree 2818/1998.In addition to the creation of a REFIT-style support mechanism, the 1994 decreealso divided electrical distribution from generation as well as establishing a moratoriumon nuclear plant construction. Alongside the REFIT-style mechanism forsubsidizing electrical production from wind generators, there is a second policypillar aimed at supporting growth in the use of wind energy, and growth of anindustry to exploit it. The IDAE oversees the allocation of capital grants to projectsintending to install less than 20MW of wind turbine capacity, with publiccapital invested with the aim of attracting private capital to meet the majority ofany costs.In 1997, IDAE made US$ 70.6 Million available to such projects, offering up to40 per cent of costs. Funding was announced to be preferred for those projectsin remote areas with poor levels of grid connectivity.2.2. Changes to Spanish policyThe Spanish government has proposed changes to the way that wind is subsidizedin Spain in 2004. The new law will see the premium option—where the paymentis related to the electricity market price—changed to instead offergenerators the chance to trade on the open market for electricity. The price theyachieve will then be supplemented with a premium payment equal to 40 per centof the electricity sector’s average billing price per kWh for the entirely of its supplyfor the year (known as the Average Electricity Tariff—AET). (McGovern 2004).The total cost for electricity in Spain in 2002 was around €0.13/kWh before taxand €0.155/kWh after tax. (Eurostat 2003)The fixed price choice is also subject to change. The subsidy available had previouslybeen held between 80-90 per cent of the AET, tending towards the 90 per centfigure. However, there always remained the potential for a review to see this
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