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Royal Decree 413/2014, of June 6, regulating the generation of electricity using renewable energy sources, cogeneration and waste (“RD 413/2014”) was published in the Official State Gazette on June 10, 2014.

Its preamble says that RD 413/2014 secures fulfillment of the mandate contained in Royal Decree-Law 9/2013, of June 12, adopting urgent measures to guarantee the financial stability of the electricity system (“RD-Law 9/2013”) for the government to approve a new legal and economic regime for the existing electricity generation facilities using renewable energy sources, cogeneration and waste.

The preamble also expressly states that RD-Law 9/2013 had come about in a context in which there had been “made clear the need to guarantee the financial sustainability of the electricity system, to consolidate the continual adaptations made to the legislation to secure, among other elements, the strict and correct application of the principle of fair return, and to undertake a review of the regulatory framework which would allow it to be better adapted to the events that define the actual circumstances of the industry.”

In that context, RD 413/2014 has implemented the specific principles on which the new regime applicable to the electricity generation facilities using renewable energy sources, cogeneration and waste must be based, according to how they were expressed in RD-Law 9/2013 and subsequently included in the Electricity Industry Law (Law 24/2013, of December 26). 

This RD 413/2014, like the other measures concerning the electricity industry approved throughout 2013 and 2014, is also part of the national reform program, submitted by the Spanish government to the European Commission on April 30, 2013, in which the government promised to present a package of legislative measures aimed at guaranteeing the financial stability of the electricity system.

Described below is the most important new legislation introduced by RD 413/2014, composed of 53 articles and divided into six headings, nineteen additional provisions, seventeen transitional provisions, one repealing provision, eight final provisions and seventeen annexes.

1. Purpose and scope of application

2. The specific remuneration regime

• 2.1 New facilities
• 2.2 Existing facilities

3. Revamp of administrative procedures

• 3.1 Administrative register of electricity generation facilities
• 3.2 Register for the specific remuneration regime

4. Other important provisions

5. Entry into force