sou · GWB313d2 · 2009-01-01 00:00:00 — That deposit is given back to the project developer when he/she gets the administrative license for the installation or when, due to reasons beyond his responsibility, the administrative license cannot be obtained. However, the new legislation, RD 661/2007, modifies the amount of the deposit defined by the former , RD 1454/2005, which for the transmission system becomes: 500 /kW for solar photovoltaics 20 /kW for all other producers included in the special regime. Procedure for connection to the distribution system (RD 1955/2000 article 62, 63 and 66) 1.The project developer sends the access application to the operator of the distribution system, DSO, in the area. Each distribution company has an application model. 2.The DSO sends within 10 days a report with the eventual ano- malies or mistakes to the promoter so that those are corrected. 3.The promoter corrects the anomalies or mistakes within 10 days from the reception of the report of the DSO. 20TP PT As it was described in Section 1.1.1, Red Electrica de , REE, is the Spanish TSO and the largest but not the only transmission company. Therefore, the transmission company and the TSO are referred to as two different entities even though in most of the cases they are the same entity, REE. 4.After receiving the correct access application, the DSO has 15 days to communicate the project developer on the access license depen- ding on whether there is available capacity for the connection or not. The report of the DSO on available capacity has a validity of six months. If the DSO does not inform the project developer on time, then the project developer can appeal to the Regulatory Body CNE. The DSO has to inform the TSO about access appli- cations for capacities larger than 10 MW (that is a change intro- duced by the RD 661/2007 in its annex XI. Earlier the limit was 50 MW or a capacity lower than or of the short-circuit capacity of the grid at the connection point for peak and low demand periods respectively). The TSO has to send a report on the capacity within two months. If the project developer does not agree with the proposed connection point by the DSO then he can appeal to the CNE who has a period of three months to decide on the conflict. 5.The project developer sends the basic project and the program of execution to the distribution company in order to get the connection license. 6.The distribution company, in case the connection can affect the transmission system as defined earlier in point 4, has to send within a month a report to the TSO regarding the fulfillment of the technical requirements as well as a copy of the basic project and the program of execution. 7.The TSO will write a report within a month. 8.The access and connection licenses can be processed at the same time but to get the connection license the project developer has to have the access license. The environmental assessment of the projects is a part of the admi- nistrative licensing process and is a requirement to get the admini- strative license necessary to build the installations. The administrative license can be processed at the same time as the access and connec- tion licenses. The environmental assessment process takes in practice about six or seven months according to one Spanish project developer. The RD 661/2007 (disposicion final ) adds a new article to the RD 1955/2000, called article 66 bis. This new article defines a deposit to be paid by project developers of installations which are to be connected to the distribution grid. The amount of the deposit is: 500 /kW for solar photovoltaics. 20 /kW for all other producers included in the special regime. It is important to note that solar photovoltaic installations located in residential, commercial, service or industrial premises do not have to hand in the deposit defined in the list above. The payment of the deposit is a requisite to initiate the application procedure of access and connection to the distribution grid. That deposit is given back to the developer when the developer gets the administrative license for the installation or when, due to reasons beyond its responsi- bility, that administrative license cannot be obtained. Installations which do not need any administrative license for being built will get back the deposit when the installation has been definitively included in the register for special regime. 1.3.1Definition of the Capacity of a Production Installation The for the special regime establishes a capacity limit of 50 MW to receive the highest payment, see Figure 1-4: Factor for installa- tions using renewable energies with an installed capacity larger than 50 MW. In practice, installations larger than 50 MW are split into several installations each with installed capacity below 50 MW in order to receive the highest payment and make use of the locations with good wind resource. An example of this is the wind farms known as Maranchón I and IV with a capacity of 18 and 48 MW each. To the substations of these wind farms are also other wind farms connected with a total capacity of 130 MWTPF21FPT. Since the total capacity is 130 MW, it is also possible to access the transmission grid since it is necessary to have at least 100 MW to connect to the transmission grid (see Section 1.3.2 below). In that case the owners of the different installations make a joint application for the connec- tion to the grid. Each installation gets paid independently. Another advantage is to be able to own the substation and have control over it. Different generating units are considered, according to the 2818/1998 (article 3), as one single installation when they inject their energy in the same transformer with a voltage output equal to the voltage of the grid to which they are connected. the installation is the sum of the capacity of the individual gene- rating units. This definition has remained unchanged in posterior legislation. If different generating installations use the same connec- tion installations, then the definition described earlier in this para- graph will be understood relating to the transformer before the one that is used by the different installations. This means for instance that 30 wind turbines of 2 MW each will be considered as a 60 MW wind park if they use the same transformer to connect to the grid. If 15 turbines are connected to one transformer and the other 15 to another transformer, then there will be two installations of 30 MW each. The operating procedure 13.1 published by the TSOTPF22FPT establishes minimum capacity limits for the connection of a producing installa- tion to the transmission grid. Those limits are 100 MW for the con- nection to the grid and 250 MW for the connection to the grid. These limits were applied even before this operating procedure was approved. The system operator REE has been flexible with the limit of 100 MW for the connection to the grid. If for example a wind park with an installed capacity of 50 MW applied for connection to the grid and had plans to later enlarge the capacity to 100 MW, then they have got access to the grid. It might sound confusing to combine the limit of 50 MW to get the payment for the special regime as the same time as the mini- mum capacity is 100 MW to connect to the transmission grid. In practice what is done is that several project developers make a joint application for connection to the transmission grid in order to reach the requisite on minimum capacity for the connection and at the same time receive the highest possible payment. To make the joint application the 661/2007 establishes the requirement of a node representative that is selected by the regional government or the competitive authority when several project developers ask on access to the transmission grid. It is usually the project developer that has been a longer time at the location or the one developing the largest installation that is selected by the authorities which com- municate the decision to the system operator and the transmission company. This speeds up the licensing process. 22TP PT (only Spanish version available) The administrative licenses, i.e., the licenses for construction, modifying or closing transmission installations are given by the Ministry. Those administrative licenses are public and are published in the State official bulletin, . Administrative licenses for distri- bution installations are given by the regional authorities. The defini- tion of what is included in the transmission installations and distri- bution installations can be found in article 5 of the RD 1955/2000. It is important to point out that according to that RD, producing installations, transformers to those installations, and connecting in- stallations such as power lines are included in neither the transmission nor the distribution grid. However, it is quite common for producers which are about to connect to the distribution grid, to give the power line and the position at the substation to the grid company (see Section 1.5). The administrative license for generating installations with either an installed capacity over 50 MW, located in more than one munici- pality, or in the sea is a responsibility of the , Tourism and Trade through its Dirección General de Energía, DGE. This is established in the Royal Decree 661/2007 article 4. The administration wants that project developers process the administrative licenses for the wind farm and the connecting line together. It can be a single dossier or several depending on whether the line is to be used by a single producer or by several. According to a Spanish project developer the negotiation with the owners of the land necessary to build a wind farm is usually fast while nego- tiations with the owners of the land necessary to build a connecting line are more difficult. When no agreement can be reached with the land owners then it is possible to expropriate the land if the installa- tions are declared by the administration as of public usefulness. The administrations use to require the project developers agreement with at least of the involved owners in order to expropriate. Expro- priation facilitates considerably the construction of lines since they can be built even if no agreement is reached with all the land owners. Access and connection to the grid are regulated by the Royal Decree 1955/2000. According to its article 20 the only reason to deny access to the grid is the lack of capacity. The lack of capacity will be justi- fied exclusively according to criteria of security, regularity and quality of the supply. Moreover the general criteria of security, regularity and quality of the supply, there are also other specific criteria for the producers included in the special regime when deciding on access to the grid. These specific criteria, which are given below, were already defined in the RD 436/2004 and are stated again in the RD 661/2007 (an- nex 11) with some modifications: 1.The capacity of a generating installation or group of installations included in the special regime connected to one power line of the distribution grid cannot exceed of the capacity of the power line at that point. 2.The capacity of a generating installation or group of installa- tions included in the special regime connected to one substation or transformer cannot exceed of the capacity of the trans- formers installed for that voltage level. 3.For producers without storage capabilities, such as wind power and solar photovoltaic producers, it is also established that the capacity of the producer or group of producers sharing connec- tion point, will not exceed 1/20 of the grid short-circuit capacity at that point. In practice, the criteria above are only being restrictive in the con- nection to the distribution grid and are not actual in the connection to the transmission gridTPF23FPT. For the connection to the distribution grid, the limits expressed in criteria 1 and 2 are limiting the capacity to be connected in about of the cases while the limit expressed in criteria 3 is limiting in approximately of the cases when there is not available capacity in the distribution grid. There is still not much experience with the connection to the distribution grid of generating capacity. Therefore it might be wise to be conserva- tive at the beginning and maybe in four or five years loosen those 23TP PT Personal communication with the Spanish system operator, REE. The limits above are considered quite conservative by the TSO. For example in , for criterion 3, values of 1/5 instead of 1/20 are being used. The largest difference between the RD 436/2004 and the RD 661/2007 regarding limits in the capacity to be connected to the grid is that in the first one the limits apply for each individual pro- duction installation while in the second one the limits apply for each individual production installation as well as for the total of installa- tions connected at the same point (power line or substation) to the grid. This means that the RD 661/2007 is more restrictive than the RD 436/2004. However, the criteria that the restriction applies not only for each individual production installation but also for groups of installations connected at the same point has been used even before the of the RD 661/2007TPF25FPT. The transmission system operator, REE, is allowing the installation of larger capacity from producers based on renewable energy sources without storage capabilities than the grids capacity at the connection point. This is due to the fact that it is very unlikely that all such producers will be producing at full capacity at the same time. Therefore, if the grid capacity at the connection point is X, it is possible to connect 1.25*X capacity from electricity producers based on renewable energy sources without storage capabilities. The new RD 661/2007 establishes in its annex XI that all access applications to the distribution grids for installations, or group of installations, with a capacity larger than 10 MW have to be sent to the transmission system operator after having got the acceptability by the distribution grid operator. The transmission system operator has to inform on its acceptability. This is a great change since RD 1955/2000 (article 63) established that only access applications for installations with an installed capacity larger than 50 MW or with a capacity larger than of the grid short-circuit capacity at the con- nection point had to be sent to the system operator. The new RD 661/2007 allows the transmission system operator to deny connec- tion to the distribution grid if that connection can mean lack of capacity in the transmission grid. There is a significant number of wind farms located between the region of and producing below their full capacity since the necessary reinforcements of the transmission grid to trans- port all energy produced at full capacity have not been materialized 24TP PT Personal communication with a distribution company. 25TP PT Personal communication with a distribution company. This means lower payment than what they could get since they dont receive any compensation for the reduced production. 1.4.2Priority Access for Renewable Electricity Producers Since the Spanish uses the criterion of non-existence of re- serve of capacity, the permits over-installation in the connec- tion points. An example of that is what happens in a node called Escombreras where the capacity at that point is 1,800 MW and there are several generating units, belonging to different owners, with a total installed capacity of 3,200 MW. In all generating units have to send their offers to the market operator, OMEL, which makes an economical match between bids and offers and establishes a so called market price. Each generating unit which has offered its production at a price under the market price receives from OMEL the hourly market price for the offered production. However, the economical-based generation program made by OMEL is usually not physically viable. Therefore, the TSO analyzes the viability of the program made by OMEL and elaborate a new pro- gram for all generating units where the production of some units has been decreased compared to the economical program and the production of some units has been increased. Those units which have got decreased production compared to the economical pro- gram have to pay back to the TSO for the decreased production at the market price; those units which get increased production get paid for the increased production at the price they had offered which can be higher or lower than the market priceTPF26FPT. In the case of Escombreras, if all generating units have offered a price below the marginal cost to the market operator, OMEL, then they get paid for all offered capacity. Then when the TSO makes the viability study, their production program will be reduced with a prorate scheme since the limit is 1,800 MW, and will have to pay back to OMEL for the decreased production. In this example, all units are conventional power plants which means that they have the same priority order. In the case of having a conventional power plant and a renewable based production plant, then the conventional power 26TP PT This is described in the operating proceedings 3.2 and 14.4 published by the TSO. Operating proceeding 3.2 Solving Technical Constraints available in English version at . Operating procedure 14.4 available only in Spanish version at junio2007_14.4.pdf plant will have to reduce all production if needed to remove the re- striction in the grid, and only after the conventional power plants have reduced their production to zero the renewable based power plants will reduce their production since they have higher priority. Within renewable energy sources it is renewable energy sources with- out storage capability that have the highest priority according to the new Royal Decree 661/2007 published in 2007. This means that if for example there is a restriction in a node where conventional power plants, hydropower plants with storage capabilities and wind farms are connected, then the conventional plants will decrease their production first; if it is not enough to remove the limitations in the grid then the hydropower plants with storage capabilities will decrease its production. The wind farms will decrease their production only after all other generating units have stopped producing. This means that power plants that have been connected at that point will have to reduce their production when generating units using renewable energy without storage capabilities are connected at the same point and there are limitations in the grid. 1.4.3Reservation of Transmission Capacity The Spanish electrical system uses the criterion of non-existence of reserve of capacity. Limitations in the access to the grid will be solved according to what is established in the operating proceed- ings of the system, see Section 1.4.2. Earlier connection does not mean any preference in the access to the grid. 1.5Costs Associated to the Connection to the There is no clear legislation in this issue, on one hand in the RD 436 (disposición transitoria tercera) it is said that costs of the installa- tions required for the connection to the grid will be paid, generally, by the producer. On the other hand, the RD 1955/2000 (article 32) establishes that reinforcement associated to the development of the grid or to the change of equipment will be included in the planning process. Finally, the RD 661/2007 (annex XI) establishes that costs related to reinforcements in the grid are to be paid by the producers unless these reinforcements are not to be used solely by the pro- ducer. Current legislation leaves possibilities for different interpre- tations since it is not closely defined what solely use of the reinforce- ment of the grid means and, in case of that the reinforcements of the grid are to be used by other producers or the distribution com- pany, how the cost sharing should be carried out. According to , , this is especially problematic with off-shore installations where the required investments for con- nection to the grid are going to be very large. It is not specified in the legislation how the costs due to the re- inforcement of the grid should be split between different produ- cers. However, the new , RD 661/2007, asks the TSO and the different DSOs to send within a year a description of the mecha- nisms to follow in order to share costs for connecting installations and necessary reinforcements between different project developers. This requirement is a result of implementing the articles 7.4 and 7.5 of the EU directive 2001/77/CE. 1.5.1Costs for the Connection Installations The payment that renewable electricity producers have received until now has been sufficient to finance reinforcement costs that have been necessary for the connection, but the fact that distances from locations with good wind resource to the electrical grid becomes larger makes the required investments also larger and therefore it becomes more difficult for producers to finance reinforcements of the grid. , according to , , it is important to establish a regulatory frame that defines objective criteria to make an equitable assignment of the associated costs to these investments. It is necessary to clearly analyse specific cases to define which costs are specific costs and which are not and to standardize the specific costs. There are many examples when connecting installations are not to be used solely by the producer. One such example is when more than one connecting power line is built in order to get a more inter- connected grid instead for just one radial power line (see Figure 1-7). In that case, the distribution company pays the dif- between the cost for just one single radial power line (line A) and for both lines (and ). A more interconnected grid benefits both the grid company and the producers who can produce electric power even if one of the con- necting power lines has some problem. Figure 1-7 Two power lines improve the connection to distribution grid. According to one of the Spanish DSOs, it is common that for volt- ages between 45 and producers give the connecting power line and even the position at the substation to the distribution com- pany in order to avoid its operation and maintenance and the associ- ated costs. A common practice is to give provisional access license to the distribution grid so that new producers can begin to produce elec- tricity even though the power lines or necessary reinforcements to transport all the energy produced at full capacity are not built (see Figure 1-8). In this provisional license the production is limited so that the capacity of the grid is not exceeded. It is very common that the grid company obliges the producer to install remote control so that the production can be controlled automatically. The provisional access license allows the owners of the installations to start producing earlier even though they cannot produce at full capacity. This is up to the distribution grid company to give such provisional licenses since the legislation establishes that the lack of capacity is a reason to deny access to the grid. Figure 1-8 Provisional connection of a wind farm with an installed capacity of 20 MW to a substation of with an available capacity of 10 MW until the line to the substation with sufficient available capacity is built. 132 kW, 20 MW 60 kW, 10 MW In the RD 1955/2000 (article 32) it is established a time horizon of 5 years within which new producers, using connection installations already paid by another producer or producers, have to pay to those, in proportion to the capacity to be connected. 1.5.2Costs for Reinforcement of the Transmission