Barely 24 hours after the Central Government published the draft of the new National Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec), few in the sector acknowledged having carefully read the more than 600 pages that the document contains. From the electricity sector, it was doubted that the objectives can be achieved, while the gas sector calls for more ambition with biomethane.
The first sensations that were felt yesterday among the managers of the renewable energy sector, who shared breakfast, conferences and lunch at the Annual Wind Congress held by the Spanish Wind Association, were bittersweet.
“The document increases ambition in terms of renewable energy targets and aligns with the guidelines set by the European Union. In this sense, we see it as positive”, assured Paloma Sevilla, general director of Aelec, the employers’ association that represents the large companies in the electricity sector, who declined to make an individual assessment.
“We are missing in the document a reflection on the capacity of the network and a disaggregation of the specific measures that must be put in place to ensure the integration of all this capacity in the system”, acknowledges Sevilla. The managers responsible for wind energy at the large Spanish electricity companies have the same doubts. “The objectives of the plan are very difficult to meet if the entire administrative processing structure is not reformed,” said Marta Fernández, Acciona’s Business Development Director in Spain.
“These are such ambitious targets for all renewables that they detract from the credibility of the commitment to Europe that this document requires. It does not specify anything about how they will advance in storage and completely forgets the investment in networks to accommodate all this capacity”, laments a large company that asks not to be identified.
In the gas sector, satisfaction was expressed for the boost to green hydrogen and the maintenance of all the current capacity of combined cycles as “unequivocal proof of the fundamental role that this technology will continue to have in the 2030 horizon”, as they highlight sources from the gas company, Sedigás. But at the same time, these sources criticize the Spanish Government for the “lack of ambition to take advantage of Spain’s real biomethane production potential”. The plan includes an annual target of 20 Twh. “It is barely 2% that biomethane would contribute to replace the demand for gas, when the objective set by the European Union is 10% in general and 13% for Spain”, they explain from de Sedigas, where they raise the production potential to 163 TWh, enough volume to decarbonize 45% of the national demand for natural gas.
Gas and electricity companies are already working to present the relevant allegations before September 4. Afterwards, the future government and the energy companies will have another year to outline and adjust the document to reality.
