AleaSoft, October 8, 2018. The government has published the Royal Decree-Law that temporarily suspends the tax on electricity generation and includes an exemption to the “green tax”, besides eliminating the “Sun tax” and contemplating shared self-consumption as measures to reduce the electricity bill. Other measures for energy transition and consumer protection are also included.
Last Saturday, October 6, the Royal Decree-Law 15/2018, of October 5, was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), with measures for the energy transition and the consumers protection, among which are included:
- Suspension for the next six months of the tax on the value of electricity generation (IVPEE, by its initials in Spanish).
- Exemption in the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons for electricity production, also known as “green tax”.
- Possibility that the cumulative surplus of the electricity sector incomes could be applied to the imbalances of incomes and expenses that could occur in the financial years 2018 and 2019, in order to prevent the lower tax revenues from putting the sustainability of the electricity system at risk.
- Elimination of the so-called “Sun tax”, the charge imposed on the self-consumer for the energy generated and consumed in its own installation.
- Possibility of practising shared self-consumption by one or several consumers.
- Simplification of the administrative and technical procedures required for small self-consumption installations.
- One-time exceptional extension for the access and connection permits granted to renewable energy installations prior to the entry into force of Law 24/2013, in whose absence they would expire on December 31, 2018. Through this extension, the entry in operation in 2020 of the 9,000 MW of power awarded in the last renewable energy auctions will be possible, avoiding a new request, processing and granting that would surely prevent reaching the 20% target of final renewable energy in that year.
- Extension of the electricity social bonus coverage:
- Specific income criteria have been established for single-parent families with the objective that more families of this type can access the social bonus.
- Prohibition to cut off the supply in households that have received the social bonus where at least one child under 16, one person with a disability level of 33% or more, or one person in a situation of dependency in grade II and III lives.
- Extension until December 31 of this year of the term to renew the social bonus to those consumers covered by the old social bonus.
- Creation of a thermal social bonus so that vulnerable households can deal with their heating, hot water or kitchen expenses this winter, regardless of the fuel they use.
