The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has launched the call for the first auction intended to grant the specific remuneration regime to high-efficiency cogeneration facilities. This bid, which will be held next February 23, will put into play a total capacity of 650 megawatts (MW), the department said this Friday.
The resolution of the State Secretariat for Energy, which will be published shortly in the Official State Gazette (BOE), is part of the plan to renew 1,200 MW of industrial cogeneration through high-efficiency power plants that use natural gas or biomass, both through new plants and through adaptation of those already in existence.
The procedure will be activated on the next business day in the Community of Madrid after the resolution appears in the BOE, at which point the period will open for submitting the required documentation. According to the Ministry, the calendar is designed so that the sector can prepare “robust” technical and economic proposals.
Power distribution: 505 MW for gas and 145 MW for biomass
The Operator of the Iberian Electricity Market will be in charge of managing the auction, under the supervision of the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC). The offered capacity will be divided into ten products or lots, depending on the nature of the participating installations.
Specifically, eight of those lots will be reserved for power plants operating with natural gas, which will total a combined capacity of 505 MW, while the remaining two will be assigned to biomass plants, with 145 MW, that is, 50 MW more than was envisaged in the draft resolution that was submitted for public information.
The capacity that will be awarded in each lot will range between 2 MW and 210 MW for natural gas installations and between 50 MW and 95 MW for biomass installations, depending on the specific features of each technology.
The winning projects will have 60 months to build the new plants and complete the modifications of biomass installations. In the rest of modification actions, the maximum deadline will be 48 months.
Conditions for energy efficiency and emissions
The installations or projects competing in the auction may not exceed 100 MW of power, a threshold that will be reduced to 15 MW in non-peninsular systems. In addition, they must demonstrate primary energy savings greater than 10% to be considered high efficiency, except in the case of installations of less than 1 MW, for which only proof of the existence of savings will be required.
At the same time, power plants fueled by natural gas will have to be prepared to consume, at least, 10% renewable hydrogen and must comply with a maximum emissions limit of 270 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour. Biomass plants, for their part, will have to meet the sustainability and emissions reduction criteria that have been established.
The call develops what is provided for in Royal Decree 530/2026 and in Order TED/672/2026, rules that regulate the process for renewing industrial cogeneration in Spain.