The big industry consumer of energy that uses the cogeneration –annexed plants that generate heat and electricity from gas and sell their surpluses to the market– such as ceramics, paper or textiles will be able to benefit “temporarily” from the gas stop compensation mechanismcalled the ‘Iberian exception’, as long as they renounce their regulated remuneration current, according to the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, during the debate on the royal decree-law of saving measures this afternoon in the Senate. This industry has been demanding this measure for months, after two out of every three plants of this type have had to stop its production.
“If the appearance has been worth something, it is so that he returns to rectify and include cogeneration in the cap on gas”, The president of the Popular Party has replied, Alberto Nunez Feijoo. sources of People’s Party defend this measure as one of the proposals of the Popular Party. “Your big announcement on Tuesday was requested this weekend and the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, reiterated it yesterday. We are delighted to help the Government. We ask you to continue copying the PP’s economic plans by deflating personal income tax to average incomes and casualties to deal with the effects of inflation”, assure these sources, informs Pilar Santos. Sources from Moncloa assure that “it is not true” that this is a proposal from the PP, but rather a demand from the sector.
The cogeneration plants charge a regulated remuneration which grants a return of 7.4%, which amounted to 665 million in 2021. In this sense, the Government is processing a ministerial order, which has just closed the public hearing period to receive arguments, to increase its regulated remuneration by more than 1,000 million, according to sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition. Due to the existence of this regulated regime, cogeneration does not perceive the adjustment charged by gas plants with the application of the Iberian mechanismbut only receive the much lower wholesale market settlement price.
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For this reason, the government has decided Modify the regulation of the cogeneration remuneration regime to allow facilities that wish to do so give it up temporarilyso that they can perceive the adjustment of the Iberian mechanism, as occurs with conventional gas plants. This measure does not modify the regulation of the Iberian mechanism agreed with the European Commission and may increase gas savings in the country.
Ministry sources point out that the return to operation of these shutdown plants could provide savings that can reach 1.2% of the daily gas demand in the best scenario. A cogeneration plant produces heat and electricity at the same time in a more efficient way than if heat is generated on one side and electricity on the other, obtaining savings of around 10%.