Photovoltaic Sector: New Royal Decree 1699/2011 now in force

12 December 2011

On December 9, 2011, Royal Decree 1699/2011 dated November 8th went into effect regulating connection to the network of low power electrical energy production facilities. However, the acting government has once again gone a step beyond and has reformed, in a series of final provisions, substantial aspects of the current photovoltaic regulations. In keeping with the custom as of late, the Royal Decree was published in the Official State Gazette “BOE” on the day before it went into effect and on a Spanish national holiday.

The most relevant changes relating to facilities with power below 100 kW that are directly connected to a low voltage distribution network (not exceeding 1kV) are as follows:

They no longer require prior administrative authorization.
The guarantee required for the administrative procedure has been lowered to 20 €/kW.
For facilities with power below 10 kW, there is an abbreviated connection procedure.

The following significant modifications have been made to current general photovoltaic regulations:

For facilities registered with the Tariff Provisional Assignment Registry after the 4th 2010 call, the period for obtaining the Final Registration in RIPRE-Registry RIPRE) is increased to 16 months from the current 12 months, albeit with no further extensions available.
The concept of substantial modification which applies to photovoltaic facilities has finally been defined as those which produce changes in technology (from permanent installation to axis follower, or from one-axis follower to two-axis follower– and viceversa).
Relevant information must now be provided to the National Energy Commission- CNE (instead of the Dirección General de Energía y Minas).
The connection budget provided by the distribution company is subject to new requirements.

All of the above changes will apply to photovoltaic facilities as of December 9, 2011.

For further information, please contact Wanda Cazalla: [email protected]