• 200 industry representatives have been working together on new processes to make the connection to new installations more efficient.
  • The Basque Self-Consumption Bureau is formed by the Associations of Installers, Iberdrola (i-DE) and the Basque Government.
  • Self-consumption has increased significantly in the Basque Country with 2,161 facilities in 2023 and 830 in the first half of 2024.

The Basque Energy Agency brings together more than 200 representatives of the photovoltaic sector to make known the result of the Basque Consumption Table. After more than six months of work, the Bureau has agreed with Iberdrola, the i-DE distributing company of the group, the homogenization of the connection procedures to be implemented with the actors involved and how to expedite as much as possible such formalities.
 
More than 200 representatives from all over the photovoltaic sector met this morning at the conference organized by the Basque Energy Agency to learn first-hand about the outcome of the work carried out by the Basque Self-Consumption Bureau, which is of great interest to the installers, as the measures adopted will allow the processing to be standardized and the deadlines to be reduced. To this end, the main results and working documents produced have been published, which will allow the processing of new installations with the i-DE distributing company.
 
The symposium was attended by representatives of the i-DE distribution company, who presented the process to be followed for the processing of self-consumption facilities, as well as key points and good practices that make it possible for them to be more effective in this process. In addition, a round table was held in which the Associations of Self-Consumption Installers of the Basque Country participated, where they explained their vision of the evolution of the sector and its possibilities for the future.
 
Self-consumption Working Table is formed by the Iberdrola (i-DE), Installers Associations UNEF, APPA, INSTAGI, SEA and AEIEB, the Basque Energy Agency and the Basque Government. Working meetings have been held for more than six months in order to agree on procedures that allow, on the one hand, to be more operational, to have a uniform and standardised procedure and, on the other hand, to speed up deadlines in order to set up installations within more reasonable deadlines.
 
Increase in self-consumption in the Basque Country
Self-consumption has grown exponentially in the Basque Country in recent years. The cessation of the pandemic and the increase in the economic activity of COVID-19 led to an increase in the price of electricity which, together with the publication of the new subsidy programmes for these facilities, also led to requests for new self-consumption facilities registering a significant increase in the years 2022 and 2023. This, in turn, tightened the market and led to an extension in time of the deadlines for the processing and legalization of the projects, so the Basque Energy Agency called on all the agents of the Table of Self-Consumption of the Basque Country to reach a consensus on the solutions and to enable a standard procedure, with ever more reasonable deadlines.
 
It should be noted that in 2023 a power of 46.2 MW was launched in the Basque Country in 2,161 PV installations of self-consumption and in the first half of 2024 an overall power of 30.1 MW has already been reached in 830 new installations.