The BOE yesterday issued the order setting the values of the remuneration for operation of cogeneration plants for the second half of the year. The industry regrets that neither its claims nor the recommendations of the CNMC have been taken into account and criticizes that further cuts are applied to industries retroactively without respecting the legal guarantees.
Cogeneration industrialists, which account for 20 percent of the industrial GDP in Spain manufacturing their products using cogeneration, have said through a statement from the Spanish Cogeneration Association, ACOGEN, that they “feel continuously penalized by the rules and unprotected in the energy policies of the Ministry “.
ACOGEN notes that the Order results in a further reduction of 287 million euro in the compensation and that the origin of this cut is in the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism´s forecasting errors when it established its own estimates, which under their opinion, have deviated -43%. “This is the origin of the conflict which now moves to the co-generation industries, with deeper cuts and more financial burdens, something the industry can not assume and will represent a heavy blow to the national industrial GDP,” says the note.
A week ago the Association requested by letter to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidency in office, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, who signs the Order, to take into account their arguments and those of other institutions to give due regard to the situation of markets, and that legal guarantees to industries be respected in order not to apply cuts retroactively and without letting them exercise their rights to paralyze their activity accordingly. However, the Order does not consider any of these findings, regrets the association.
Strong impact on industrial activity in the country
The statement recalls that in more than 600 food, chemical, paper, ceramics, textiles, automotive, refining and so on industries, cogeneration is the great ally acting as a competitive tool for these intensive energy consumption industries “today they are seriously concerned about this new cut that is imposed on the remuneration review ” they note.
“After an energy reform that has led to the inactivity of 35% of the cogeneration installations, with a reduction of 1,200 million euro annually in the remuneration of cogeneration plants, the Order places cogeneration in the plight of seeing its remuneration additionally reduced in other 287 million euro, which will result in a new and strong impact on industrial activity in the country, “the note says.
The CNMC coincides with ACOGEN allegations
In addition, ACOGEN stresses that the report by the National Commission of Markets and Competition, CNMC on the Order gives broadly reason to ACOGEN in justification of the main arguments that have been made in relation to the revision of the remunerative parameters.
So, it recalls that the CNMC report notes that the methodology used to update the cogeneration plants remuneration is “opaque and not reproducible” preventing companies from making reliable forecasts and rebut or detect errors.
CNMC agrees with the statements made by co-generators and other institutions in their allegations, warning of the special situation of prices and tensions and losses that it entails de facto for cogeneration plants, since the government forecast has shifted to -43% according to the same sources.
Also, the report by the CNMC expresses its concern to the Government for processing the proposal urgently, hampering claims of the thousand and a half affected facilities, as well as for the Ministry´s delay in forwarding the proposal since “if the intention was to publish the order before July 1 in any case, the proposal should have been submitted at least one month before “, the statement reflects.
