SpainDC, the Spanish employers' association of 'data centers', considers especially "revealing" that the new draft royal decree to regulate these centers includes a particular regime for certain projects, among them those linked to the artificial intelligence (AI) gigafactory in Mora la Nova (Tarragona), promoted by the Government.
According to the text sent by the Executive to the Council of State, the future regulation contemplates a "specific regime for data centers that are part of initiatives of the European Union whose main purpose is to reinforce European digital sovereignty, such as factories and gigafactories of artificial intelligence (AI) and supercomputers, including the projects presented by the Government of Spain to its calls for proposals".
"The clearest demonstration that the Government itself knows that this regulation is unfeasible in the terms in which it is proposed is that it self-excludes when it comes to applying it to the projects that it itself wants to promote," pointed out the executive director of SpainDC, Begoña Villacís. "For its projects, it introduces flexibility and a specific regime; for the rest of the market, it maintains requirements that it considers manageable," she added.
The association thus emphasizes the "incoherence of relaxing certain conditions exclusively for specific developments linked to public proposals." "This differentiation reinforces doubts about the proportionality of the general regime and about the treatment that private investments competing to develop the same digital infrastructure will receive," indicated the employers' association.
Criticism of discrimination against the Administration
Sources from the sector describe the regulation as illegal because they believe it is impossible to apply and denounce an evident favoritism, as the Executive grants an exemption to itself, leaves out the data centers of the public administration, and at the same time, excludes projects like the AI gigafactory in Mora la Nova (Tarragona) from obligations.
In contrast to press readings that pointed to a reduction of conditions, these sources categorically deny it: "The reading they have wanted to give that it is softened, no; we are made to choose between the type of rope with which we want to hang ourselves."
According to these same voices, the royal decree pushes the industry to choose between demanding 80% renewable generation with 80% hourly correlation —a requirement they label as disproportionate and that would imply multiplying the network capacity by 14— or assuming the risk of supply interruptions, turning data centers into the only sector subjected to this limitation.
SpainDC rejects the new draft
The employers' association has expressed its rejection of the new text of the royal decree sent to the Council of State, understanding that it maintains the requirements that already made the original proposal "unviable" and also incorporates new risk factors for operation, legal security, and capital attraction.
Far from representing a relaxation, SpainDC argues that the document adds an alternative that it considers particularly concerning. Specifically, it denounces that centers wishing to undergo a gradual transition before fully meeting the 80% renewable hourly target must accept that the system operator may cause a blackout when deemed necessary, without setting clear limits on its frequency or duration nor offering the predictability required by critical infrastructure.
"Energy conditions are maintained that we consider extraordinarily difficult to meet and, as an alternative, we are offered to accept the risk of a blackout," criticized the president of SpainDC, Emilio Díaz. "For an industry whose main obligation to its clients is to guarantee continuity and availability, this changes the project's risk, affects its financing, and ultimately becomes part of the decision on where to make an investment," he commented.
Villacís, for his part, reproaches that there is a "specific" targeting of data centers that do not accept this option. "We do not understand why a specific industry has to become the first to be shut down when the electrical system has a problem. We are being turned into the escape valve for planning, investment, or network capacity problems that we have not generated," he criticized.
In the same vein, he insisted that "the transition is not a concession without counterweights." "The choice is between fulfilling from the beginning an obligation that we consider unviable or accepting the risk of blackout. That is not removing a barrier: it is maintaining one and creating another worse," he lamented.
The 80% renewable hourly and ongoing projects
The draft maintains as a general regime the obligation that, in each hour, at least 80% of the electricity consumption is backed by renewable generation produced in that same interval.
SpainDC argues that this overlooks key recommendations from the report of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), which gathered much of the sector's criticisms, such as the rigidity of the hourly correlation, the risk of oversizing generation and storage, and the inefficiency of requiring new renewable capacity when the system already has surpluses.
It also does not modify one of the aspects that most concerns companies with advanced projects: those that have access and connection permits but are not yet physically connected will only have six months to adjust to the new rules, with the threat of losing permits and guarantees if they do not succeed.
In this regard, Díaz warns that "this is not a debate about hypothetical investments," but rather "there are projects with years of development, land acquired, contracts signed, and capital committed under certain rules; changing them now and adding the possibility of losing permits opens a scenario of litigation and potential claims of enormous amounts."
SpainDC will activate regulatory and legal avenues
The association believes that the introduction of the Automatic Power Reduction System (SRAP) —a mechanism linked to the transition that could lead to a blackout— represents a substantial modification regarding the text submitted for public hearing and on which the CNMC expressed its opinion.
"If after the regulator's report you introduce a pathway that could end in a blackout and make it a central piece of the decree, the CNMC should be able to express its opinion on that new reality," Villacís has stated.
SpainDC will present new observations and allegations, will convey its criticisms to the Council of State, and will demand that the CNMC issue a new report on the updated draft.
Additionally, the employers' association will examine the legal coverage of the anticipated obligations and will promote the review of compliance with the European TRIS procedure, regulated in Directive (EU) 2015/1535, including the possible notification to the European Commission if it were legally enforceable.
"We are going to use all the institutional, regulatory, and legal avenues at our disposal," Díaz has argued, who concludes that this regulation "is capable of altering committed investments, affecting already granted permits, and changing Spain's competitive position."