Net balance contract
Introduction
The net balance or net electricity metering[1][2] is a general utility scheme for the use and payment of the resource in which a customer that generates its own electrical energy can offset energy balances instantly or deferred, allowing consumers to individually produce energy for their own consumption, making their production curve compatible with their demand curve.[3].
This system is generally used by consumers who have a small renewable energy installation (mainly wind or photovoltaic), and allows the excess produced by a self-consumption system to be poured into the electrical grid in order to be able to use that excess at another time. In this way, the electric company that provides the electricity when the demand is higher than the production of the self-consumption system, will deduct the excesses discharged into the network from the network consumption of the bill, which is carried out using a bidirectional meter that allows the electricity to be measured in both directions, that consumed and that discharged into the network. This allows the electricity produced in excess to be used, for example, on vacation, by a photovoltaic self-consumption system.
In recent years, due to the growing rise of small renewable energy installations, self-consumption with net balance has begun to be regulated in various countries around the world, being a reality in countries such as Germany, Holland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Denmark, Japan, Australia, the United States, Canada and Mexico, among others.
In Spain, a royal decree was approved at the end of 2011 that established the regulation of the administrative, technical and economic conditions of the network connection of small-power electrical energy production facilities.[3] On April 5, Royal Decree 244/2019[4] was published, defining the administrative, technical and economic conditions for self-consumption of electrical energy. This decree completes the measures set forth in Royal Decree-Law 15/2018.[5].
European Union
Contenido
La Directiva "Directiva (Derecho de la Unión Europea)") 2009/28/CE, del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, de 23 de abril de 2009, relativa al fomento del uso de energía procedente de fuentes renovables y por la que se modifican y se derogan las Directivas 2001/77/CE y 2003/30/CE,[6] establece la obligación de racionalizar y acelerar los procedimientos administrativos de autorización y conexión a redes de distribución y transporte de energía eléctrica, instando a establecer procedimientos de autorización simplificados. Igualmente regula las líneas generales que deben regir el acceso a las redes y funcionamiento de las mismas en relación con las energías renovables.