BOE of today, Monday, September 14: new prices of butane and a solar plant of 133 MW

The authorization of a photovoltaic plant of more than 100 MW in Spain is, above all, a complex and phased administrative procedure, involving the General State Administration, the autonomous community, and various sectoral bodies. Parliament only intervenes indirectly, through laws and, where appropriate, royal decree-laws that shape the regulatory framework of the electricity and environmental sectors.

1. Basic distribution of competences

For a high-power installation connected to the electricity transmission grid, the main competence usually lies with the General State Administration, while the autonomous community retains very relevant competences in matters of land use planning, urban planning, environment, and sectoral authorizations over the land.

This translates into a “two-level” system:

• State: energy administrative titles linked to the transmission grid (authorization of the installation and high-voltage connection, coordination with the grid operator, etc.).
• Autonomous community: urban compatibility, detailed environmental assessment, municipal licenses, and sectoral permits associated with the specific site.

2. Prior administrative authorization and construction authorization

The promoter must process, before the competent body:

• Prior administrative authorization, which assesses the technical and energy feasibility of the project (power, configuration, planned connection, compliance with electrical planning and sectoral regulations).
• Administrative construction authorization, which approves the detailed construction projects (engineering, line routing, substations, protection and control measures, etc.).

These procedures include typical administrative action steps: submission of application and project, acceptance for processing, requests for corrections, reports from other bodies, hearing the interested party, and, where appropriate, coordinated public information with the environmental assessment.

3. Environmental impact assessment

A photovoltaic plant of more than 100 MW is, in practice, subject to ordinary environmental impact assessment. This implies:

• Submission of an environmental impact study along with the project.
• Public information procedure and consultations with affected administrations and interested persons.
• Issuance of an environmental impact declaration (EID) by the competent environmental body (state or regional), which can be favorable, favorable with conditions, or unfavorable.

The EID decisively conditions the authorization: if unfavorable, the project, in practice, cannot proceed under the proposed terms.

4. Access and connection to the grid

Simultaneously, the promoter must obtain access and connection permits to the grid:

• Application to the corresponding transmission or distribution grid operator, accrediting the project, power, and desired connection node.
• Evaluation of the available capacity at the node and technical compatibility with other projects.
• Granting, where appropriate, of permits linked to progress milestones (submission of authorizations, obtaining the EID, etc.) whose non-compliance may lead to permit expiration.

5. Other sectoral permits and commissioning

Besides energy and environmental authorizations, the project usually requires:

• Urban compatibility and, where appropriate, planning modifications or municipal building permits.
• Authorizations regarding hydraulic public domain, roads, railways, coasts, or forests, if affected by panels, evacuation lines, or accesses.
• Reports on cultural heritage and, occasionally, impacts on defense, civil aviation, or telecommunications.

Once these milestones are overcome and the work executed, the operation authorization or commissioning is requested, certifying that the plant has been built according to the authorized project and can be connected and operated commercially.

6. Indirect role of the General Courts

There is no specific “parliamentary procedure” for each plant. The intervention of the Congress and Senate occurs at a general normative level:

• Approving laws or bill projects regulating energy, environment, or administrative authorizations, following ordinary legislative phases (submission, amendments, debates and votes in both Chambers, sanction, and publication in the Official State Gazette).
• Validating or repealing royal decree-laws of the Government that, in situations of necessity, may temporarily modify access criteria, processing deadlines, or environmental requirements.

Therefore, the specific project does not pass through the General Courts, but it is fully conditioned by a legal and regulatory framework whose creation and modification do follow general parliamentary procedures.

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) does not “set” the price of electricity, gas, or fuels day by day, but it does have a central role in designing the regulatory framework and in several regulated components of those prices. Direct supervision of the markets and many specific figures corresponds to the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) and, presumably, to the future National Energy Commission (CNE), attached to MITECO.

1. Basic institutional framework

Law 3/2013, creating the CNMC, amended by Royal Decree-Law 1/2019, assigns to the CNMC the setting of methodologies and, in many cases, the values of access tolls to electricity and gas networks and other regulated parameters. This is recalled, for example, in the CNMC resolution establishing the gas network access tolls for 2026 (BOE-A-2025-11064).

That same Royal Decree-Law 1/2019 introduces “energy policy guidelines”: strategic directives that the Government, through MITECO, sends to the regulator and which it must consider when approving its regulatory circulars on tolls, fees, or methodologies (analyzed in Demócrata). That is, the CNMC calculates and sets many specific values, but within a framework and guidelines defined by the Government and, in practice, by MITECO.

2. Direct functions of MITECO related to prices

Based on MITECO press releases and resolutions published in the BOE, several material competences of the ministry that directly affect the formation of energy prices can be identified:

• Design of the legal and regulatory framework of the energy sector: MITECO proposes to the Council of Ministers laws, royal decrees, and regulations that govern production, supply, marketing, and capacity mechanisms in the electricity and gas system. An example is the proposed regulation for a capacity market in the electricity system, which establishes that the mechanism’s cost will be financed through unit prices differentiated by tariff segments, coinciding with transmission and distribution tolls (MITECO note, 18-12-2024).
• Determination of regulated components or parameters influencing prices: through ministerial orders and resolutions of the Secretary of State for Energy, the ministry approves methodologies or parameters that condition the remuneration of certain technologies and, therefore, their supply behavior and regulated costs. For example, a 2025 resolution sets natural gas price estimates by toll levels, used in the remuneration of generation facilities whose costs depend on fuel (BOE-A-2025-19770).
• Structural interventions in the markets: MITECO promotes Council of Ministers agreements that require dominant gas operators to submit purchase and sale offers in the organized market, aiming to increase liquidity and competition. The resolution publishing the Agreement of July 1, 2025, details that, in certain cases, the CNMC will propose to MITECO the methodology to calculate the price differential and volume to offer (BOE-A-2025-14562), reflecting a directing and normative enabling function of the ministry.
• Consumer protection and marketing regulation: the ministry promotes rules such as the General Regulation on Supply, Marketing, and Aggregation of Electric Energy, which sets contracting conditions, information obligations, and limits on certain commercial practices, impacting tariff structure and products offered to customers (MITECO note, 10-02-2026).

3. Supervision and coordination with the regulator

Price formation in wholesale and retail markets is supervised by the CNMC, but the Government maintains a coordination role. In March 2026, Economy, MITECO, and the CNMC agreed to strengthen supervision, transparency, and institutional coordination over energy markets amid price volatility episodes (Moncloa note, 11-03-2026). The CNMC sends daily information to MITECO on electricity, gas, and fuel prices, enabling the ministry to assess whether additional regulatory measures are necessary.

4. Future role of the CNE attached to MITECO

The Government has initiated the process to reestablish a National Energy Commission, attached to MITECO, with broad functions over electricity, hydrocarbons, natural gas, and green hydrogen markets (MITECO, 20-02-2024). According to the draft bill, this CNE:

• Will supervise and control energy markets and exercise sanctioning power.
• Will settle tolls, charges, prices, fees, and regulated remunerations in the electricity and gas sectors.
• Will act as a consultative body and participate mandatorily in the drafting of rules affecting its competences.

Being attached to MITECO, this ministry will strengthen its structural influence over the design of mechanisms determining the regulated components of energy prices, while the operational setting of many of those values and daily supervision will remain in the hands of independent regulatory authorities.

For a collective agreement of state scope to be registered in the collective agreements registry and published in the BOE, it must meet a set of legal requirements mainly derived from the Workers' Statute (consolidated text approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015) and Royal Decree 713/2010, of May 28, on the registration and deposit of collective agreements and labor agreements (BOE-A-2010-9274), later amended, among others, by Royal Decree 901/2020 and Order TES/1573/2025 updating its annexes (BOE-A-2026-158).

1. Basic regulatory framework

• Workers' Statute, Title III, particularly articles 89 and 90, which regulate negotiation, validity, registration, and publication of collective agreements (BOE-A-2015-11430).
• Royal Decree 713/2010, which develops the provisions of article 90.2 ET and establishes the procedure for registration and deposit of collective agreements and labor agreements, including electronic processing obligations.
• Its subsequent amendments, especially Royal Decree 901/2020, which changes the name and some provisions of RD 713/2010 and adds a new annex 2.V for equality plans, and Order TES/1573/2025, which updates the content of several statistical annexes.

2. Material validity requirements of the agreement

Royal Decree 713/2010 assumes that only those collective agreements negotiated according to Title III of the Workers' Statute (art. 2.1.a of RD 713/2010) are registrable as collective agreements. This generally implies:

• That the negotiation has been conducted by legitimized subjects (representatives of workers and employers) as provided in the Workers' Statute.
• That the text has been approved by the negotiating commission with the majorities required by the ET (as referred to in articles 89 and 90 cited in the preamble of RD 713/2010).
• That the agreement is a written agreement, signed by the negotiating commission, which has normative nature under Title III ET.

The labor authority, when processing the registration, does not renegotiate the content of the agreement but must verify that it is a genuine statutory collective agreement and does not contravene the basic legal framework.

3. Formal requirements of the text and file

To initiate the procedure of article 90.2 ET and registration in the state registry, RD 713/2010 requires a series of formal and documentary requirements:

• Application deadline: the negotiating commission or designated person must submit the registration application within fifteen days following the signing of the agreement, equality plan, or collective agreement (art. 6.1 RD 713/2010).
• Electronic application: registration must be requested by electronic means before the registry of the competent labor authority (for state agreements, the registry attached to the Directorate General of Labor of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy).
• Minimum data in the application: according to article 6.2 of RD 713/2010, the application must include at least:
  • Identification of the signatory parties and date of signing.
  • Determination of the personal, functional, territorial, and temporal scope of the agreement.
  • Economic activity or activities covered, according to annex 1 of RD 713/2010.
• Texts and statistical annexes:
  • The full text of the agreement must be provided, electronically signed by the authorized person.
  • Completion of the official statistical sheets (annex 2 of RD 713/2010) is mandatory, particularly:
    • Annex 2.I: company agreements statistical sheet.
    • Annex 2.II: sector agreements statistical sheet.
    • Annexes 2.III and 2.IV for wage revisions, and 2.V for equality plans, where applicable, according to amendments introduced by Royal Decree 901/2020 and Order TES/1573/2025.

4. Registration, publication in the BOE, and corrections

Once the application with the required documentation is submitted, the labor authority proceeds to its registration in the collective agreements registry regulated by RD 713/2010 (arts. 2 et seq.). The royal decree itself creates, for the state or supra-regional scope, a specific registry of collective agreements with electronic operation, and also provides a central database of collective agreements and labor agreements managed by the competent Ministry.

According to article 90 of the Workers' Statute, explicitly referred to by RD 713/2010, once the agreement is registered, the labor authority will issue a resolution ordering its registration and publication in the corresponding official bulletin, which for state agreements is the Official State Gazette. In practice, registration and publication are carried out through resolutions of the Directorate General of Labor in which the agreement or its modifications are “registered and published,” which appear in the BOE.

If the labor authority detects formal defects or lack of required data under RD 713/2010 (for example, insufficient accreditation of the parties, lack of scope determination, or missing statistical sheets), it may require the negotiating commission to correct them within a set period. Only in strictly defined cases of non-compliance with essential legal requirements or absence of genuine statutory collective agreement nature could registration and, consequently, publication be denied.