Industry allows Canary self-consumption in the desalination of water to irrigation.

However, The Ministry has warned that the modification of the decree that this decision entails cannot be made effective while there is still a government in office.

The Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism has agreed to initiate the procedures for modify the new decree 900/2015, with the aim of exempting self-consumption facilities associated with the integral water cycle, of the obligations of the new regulation, which should go into effect this month.

However, the Ministry has warned that the modification of the decree that entails this decision, It cannot be made effective while there is still a Government in office, and you only agree to apply this exemption to existing installations and not to new ones., as requested by the Minister of Economy, Industry, Trade and Knowledge of the Government of Canarias, Pedro Ortega.

This has been announced by the Deputy Minister of Industry, Energy and Commerce, Adrian Mendoza, after the meeting held in Madrid with representatives of the Ministry, including the Secretary of State for Energy, Alberto Nadal, and the director of Energy and Mines, Maria Teresa Baquedano, and in which the Government delegate in the Canary Islands was also present, Enrique Hernandez Bento.

As Mendoza explains, The Ministry agreed to start the procedures for these facilities to be excluded from the new parameters that they want to impose for the self-consumption of wind energy, whose application would oblige promoters to contract, starting in April, the same power through the network as the one installed in the wind mills.

The problem, he added, the thing is This exclusion only applies to existing installations and not to new ones., what it means “a major obstacle to the development of a crucial sector for the Canary Islands, How is the production of water with renewable energy”.

In this sense, the vice-counselor recalled that the consumption of energy discharged into the network that is destined for desalination is between 5 and the 10%, depending on the island energy system in question, and around the 20% if the entire integral water cycle is considered.

In addition, Mendoza specified that in cases such as the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, consumption of desalinated water is 100%, while in Tenerife and Gran Canaria it represents the 60%, being the current energy costs around the 340% of production costs.

Regarding the application of the decree, that next Sunday would have to come into force, Adrián Mendoza indicated that, for the moment, this is not going to happen, Since some of the corresponding regulations are still pending, as informed.

In a letter sent to the Ministry, Councilor Pedro Ortega urgently requested a modification of the decree 900/2015 in your article 5 where the integral water cycle is excepted (desalination, transport, distribution, debugging and regeneration) from limiting installed power to contracted power.

In such a way that double the power of the receiving installation is allowed, tal y como hasta ahora se recogía en la legislación de la Comunidad Autónoma. En esa carta, el consejero recordó que la limitación de la potencia de autoconsumo supone, en el plano económico, un incremento inmediato del coste del agua desalada por sobrecostes energéticos.