The New Spanish Self-consumption Regulation

The new Spanish Power Sector Law (Ley del Sector Eléctrico, LSE) 24/2013 regulates self-consumption facilities for the first time, and in particular domestic PV panels. The paper analyzes the approved regulation. It is concluded that energy prices and access tariffs should faithfully reflect actual supply costs, in order not to distort consumer incentives when choosing between distributed PV equipment and grid supply. However, the discussed regulation intends to “correct” the impact of taxes and levies unrelated to supply costs. This approach is found wanting. A stable and efficient regulation must be designed alongside an energy, preferably environmentally oriented, tax reform.