The proposed government electricity reforms have left nobody indifferent, in fact it means that many who went out on a limb to use solar panels are now being penalized for it.

Traditional, big, energy providers have come out reinforced whereas energy independent users now have to pay a ‘transportation fee’ on energy even when they don’t consume any. In other words, you’re not only being charged if you use it, but just for that possibility being there.

What the Central Government has done is create a new fee or tax called peaje de respaldo (back-up toll), which will be levied on users who consume electricity generated by themselves, fundamentally on photovoltaic users, where they are connected to the mainline system as a back up.

Associations of such users have protested energetically (no pun intended); here we are, they say, in one of the the most sun-blessed countries in Europe; ripe for solar energy, yet Spain has one of the the most expensive electricity rates on the continent.

So what, precisely, is the peaje de respaldo? This is a sum levied on generated electricity even though it is used solely for your own use. We’re looking at, possibly, nine cents on every kilowatt produced on outputs inferior to 10kw. This is just a very rough guide and until Madrid actually rolls out the new law with all its trimmings, consumers can only guess.

The Government justifies this tax because these autonomous systems are “backed up” by the main supply system if or when the domestically produced supplies fails or drops below the minimum necessary for household use. Therefore, reasons the Government, these self-sufficient consumers have to pay, just like everybody else, for the infrastructure of standard electricity supply.

“When the domestic producer connect to the normal supply grid, which we all pay for, he must contribute to its upkeep otherwise we would be paying for part of his autonomous supply,” reasoned the Minister for Industry, Jose Manuel Soria.

However the Union Española Fotovoltaica estimates that the ‘toll’ could be up to 27% higher than for standard electricity users.

Before, people with solar panels that produce electricity could sell their surplus energy produced by ‘exporting’ it down the standard electricity lines and thus offset what they used from it. Not now, thanks to the coming Royal Decree.

So it’s goodbye to the system used in some regions of Spain whereby solar-panel users could use their panels during the day and connect up at night, paying normal rates for it. Now they are forced to put their names down on the Registro Administrativo de Autoconsumo. The obligation does not exist, of course, for solar-panel users who have no connection to a normal backup electricity supply.

What happens if you don’t register? After a grace period of two months, once the new law comes into being, apart from being cut off from a normal electricity supply, you could face up to a 30-million-euro fine… and that’s not a misprint.

(News: Spain)