Source: Diario Financiero
A working document with a series of proposals that point towards an efficient and sustainable energy transition for the long term was presented this Thursday by three associations: the Association of Small and Medium Hydroelectric Power Plants (Apemec), the Association for Solar Power Control and the Geothermal Council. – to the Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow, in the midst of the challenges facing the sector in order to achieve the decarbonization of the energy matrix by 2040.
The group that brings together different 24/7 renewable generation companies states in the letter – to which DF had access – that assuming that decarbonization will be achieved with the exclusive dependence on variable renewable sources such as solar photovoltaic and wind, plus storage ” It imposes serious technical and regulatory challenges and a high cost for the country that must be borne by all customers”.
This condition – they add – “could slow down or even make the path to decarbonization impossible if a responsible complement with flexible-based renewable technologies is not promoted to make it possible to replace the contribution made by basic and polluting technologies in past decades, the which, if not adequately supplied, will slow down or even prevent the energy transition and effective decarbonisation”.
The associations put forward specific proposals on various fronts in terms of electricity regulation: centralized dispatch versus bid market, lateral payments, forced dispatches, power market, stabilized prices, green tax, regulated tenders, and transmission and congestion.
Regarding the power market, it is necessary -they say- to move forward urgently with the scheme proposed in the new regulation and implement its application, in order to correct the current power allocation in order to deliver the necessary investment signals for the incorporation of flexible renewable sources to the system.
Regarding the green tax, it is urged to review the legal mechanism that provides that this tax cannot be part of the variable cost for the purposes of marginal cost, this being the correct way for the tax to effectively discourage the dispatch of polluting units and It is not a mere collection mechanism.
One aspect that is widely detailed is regulated tenders. In this regard, it is argued that it is necessary to ensure that each hourly block is reliably supplyable with non-variable renewable energy, considering for this the inclusion of the concept of “efficient firm energy” that allows guaranteeing with a high probability the coverage of the energy commitment. with distribution companies.