Spain Supreme Court unveils 1st appeals against renewables reform

Sep 10, 2014 - Spain’s Supreme Court informed yesterday about the filing of some 20 appeals against regulations, published earlier this year, that involve retroactive changes to the incentives regime for renewable energy in Spain.

The appeals, published in Spain’s Official Gazette, represent the first wave of thousands of filings against Royal Decree 413/2014 from June 6, 2014 which regulates the renewable, co-generation and waste energy production and against the Government’s new parameters of the types of remunerations in the sector. The deadline for the appeals against the law ends tomorrow, while the one against the governmental ruling ends on Friday.

The list of entities disagreeing with the new rules in the energy sector includes the Extremadura government, renewable energy producers’ association APPA, solar thermal association Protermosolar, power utility and pulp manufacturer Ence (BME:ENC), engineering firm Sener, EDP Cogeneration and solar power group Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV). According to industry sources, quoted by Cinco Dias, this law brings a financial loss of over EUR 20 billion (USD 25.91bn) to the affected companies.

The regulations under attack aim to tackle the tariff deficit and avoid a collapse in the electricity system in Spain. The companies and organisations that submitted the appeals claim that there is a violation of the legal security and confidence, breach of the principle of retroactivity and the European Union Directives 2009/28 and 2009/72, among others.

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