Good news for the cogeneration sector as the year ends. The Government is accelerating to launch an auction for the megawatts (MW) of capacity that it promised before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the aim of holding the first bid in early 2024.
The auction framework has been finalized for two years, but the energy crisis left any call on the shelf. The sector estimates that with the start of the process, a new industrial investment cycle will open that will mobilize more than 800 million euros in sectors such as food and beverages, chemicals, paper, ceramics, refining, textile, etc., which together have more than 600 factories. Initially, the idea of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition was to launch 1,200 MW – to renew the current park and new plants – in three years: 351 MW in 2022, 442 MW in 2023 and 407 MW in 2024, with a view to that would be fully operational in 2027.
In the Royal Decree and ministerial order proposals released to public information at the end of 2021, it is recognized that the successful bidder’s facilities could operate with natural gas or biomass and, in addition to providing high efficiency, they must be prepared to consume man a 10% renewable hydrogen, as well as allocating more than 30% of electricity production to self-consumption, unless they had signed a long-term energy sales contract.
The plants could not exceed 50 MW of power
It was also established that the plants could not exceed a power of 50 MW -15 MW in non-peninsular systems-. They also had to present a strategic impact assessment plan with initial estimates on local employment and the industrial value chain, as well as a final impact assessment plan.
Cogeneration, with more than 5,500 MW of installed power, has a strong presence in the industrial sector, where it is located in the order of 92%, while the remaining 8% is in the tertiary and residential sector. The fuel mostly consumed by the plants is natural gas.
Sector sources explain to La Información that work has accelerated in this regard after the department headed by Teresa Ribera, who prefers not to comment, launched the new remuneration methodology for the cogeneration sector for public consultation last week. action and biomass. According to the proposal, the Government proposes 1,416 million euros in remuneration: 974 million for cogeneration, 44.8 million for biomass, 249 million for waste treatment (slurry) and 148.3 million for sludge treatment.
“The risk of relocation becomes more likely towards competing European countries”
Cogeneration has demanded that the Government, as an urgent additional measure, extend the operation of the existing plants for two years and facilitate their transition until the new framework is completed. “The risk of relocation becomes more likely towards competing European countries that support cogeneration and promote the construction of new plants and the transition of existing ones because it is the highest efficiency technology available,” has warned the Spanish Cogeneration Association ( They welcome) and take energy.
According to the two associations, the continued contraction of the industrial situation, with deterioration and weakness in demand, has impacted cogeneration with a cumulative drop of 30% in its production. However, the cogenerators foresee a certain change in trend by the end of the year and estimate that it will improve by 5% compared to 2022, “the year of historical collapse.” In this sense, and to confirm the change in trend, it remains to complete the approval of the orders of new remuneration methodology and auctions provided for in Royal Decree-Law 6/2022, of March 29, and in the National Integrated Energy Plan . and Climate (PNIEC).
Replacing fossil plants with renewable ones
The Government will distribute more than 50 million euros for the replacement of cogeneration and waste treatment plants that replace fossil sources (natural gas, fuel oil and diesel) with renewable energy. The Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) has resolved the first call for the Renocogen program and 15 projects have been selected. According to the proposed resolution, Castilla-La Mancha (17.2 million euros) and Galicia (13.4 million) are the communities that will benefit most from the distribution of this first line, which confirms the growing interest of the industry in the model competitiveness of renewables. .
Among the beneficiary companies are Lácteas García Baquero, Iesa Intermalta Energía and Coinver Energy. In addition, the resolution includes ten other initiatives that have not been admitted for various reasons, as has happened with the new biomass thermal production plant at the Aceites Sierra Sur plant in Pinos Puente (Granada) or the approach to green electricity from the whey of the Balearic Dalrit.
The Renocogen Program, Initially Endowed With 150 Million Euros, Is Framed Within the Renewable Energy Deployment and Integration Component of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, in line with the objective of installing at least 3,800 MW of ‘Green’ Generation For the first half of 2026.
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