In the incomparable setting of the Caja Rural de Aragón Foundation’s auditorium in Zaragoza, the AEPIBAL DAY 2024 was held last Thursday, November 28th, bringing together over 470 attendees, including 20 public representatives from bodies responsible for the development of energy storage in Spain, such as MITECO, CNMC, regional governments, Red Eléctrica, IDAE, and OMIE.

This third edition of the event, which has established itself as the leading reference for energy storage in Spain, aimed to get everyone up to date in one day. As expressed by its president, Luis Marquina, in his opening speech, the goal was to review the current state of the art with all the entities involved in the regulation of energy storage, addressing all the issues concerning the sector and keeping storage in a state of constant alert, with the confidence and optimism that what needs to happen will indeed happen. This can only mean the necessary regulatory development so that, within a reasonable time frame and with 2025 as the first milestone, energy storage will become a reality.

The participation of MITECO, with the three general sub-directorates most involved in storage, was particularly relevant as important advances were announced concerning the Capacity Mechanism, Demand Auctions, REER auctions with storage to shift solar generation to the hours when it is needed, as well as the resolution of dispatch priorities in Technical Restrictions and the Origin Guarantees for hybrid plants. All of these are expected to be well underway in the first months of the coming year.

Focusing on flexibility, a key element for the penetration of renewables, as emphasized in his presentation by AEPIBAL Vice President Eugenio Dominguez, CNMC and Red Eléctrica highlighted the importance of creating a versatile and flexible system that can operate whenever needed, without compromising the security of supply.

In this context, the CNMC’s energy sub-directorate announced that a remote triggering system is under study, which would initially manage the operation of storage stations. This could make the setting of initial study patterns for access and connection unnecessary.

Other participants, including IDAE, discussed the difficulty of extending the deadline for the last milestone in hybridization and stand-alone tenders, set for April 2026. The environmental evaluation sub-directorate stressed the need to continue training all actors involved in projects (evaluators, municipalities, and the public), as well as the importance of developing documentation that emphasizes the potential environmental impacts and how to mitigate them in the projects presented. This allowed attendees to better understand the current reality and the substantial work that remains to be done.

The session with regional governments was particularly enlightening, as they called for clearer regulatory frameworks from the central government on key aspects, such as the Declaration of Public Utility for evacuation lines or land-use changes for storage sites not located on industrial land but which could be optimal (for example, near electrical substations, as AEPIBAL advocates). These are areas where regional governments are responsible and should take firm steps, as exemplified by the Director General of Energy of the Valencian Community, Manuel Argüelles.

Finally, the realistic vision of business scenarios presented by Pedro Basagoiti from OMIE and Chema Zabala, market advisor for the association, helped attendees understand why more revenue sources will be needed in the future if storage is to exceed the 5 GW threshold installed, a minimum figure according to Zabala if Spain is to achieve a successful energy transition that offers both renewable and competitive energy.