Grid interconection contract for renewable energy (Contrato de interconexión para fuente de energía renovable)

In September 2001, the regulatory authority CRE established special rules on establishing transmission charges, and other issues relating to feeding and transmitting into the national grid intermittent electricity from renewable energy sources. These apply to solar, wind and small hydroelectric installations, with storage capacity no larger than that necessary to supply electricity during the local peak hours. It also establishes the general conditions for the judiciary acts among the parts related to the generation and transmission of electricity. The rules established by CRE require the utility to: -give priority to feeding electricity generated from renewable sources of energy into its grid -provide discounts of between 50% and 70% for electricity transmission and grid connection for renewable energy plants with a capacity over 500kW -If the power fed into the grid is not needed, this surplus energy is to be stored by the utility for use at a later time, and must be provided to the supplier upon demand These rules were used to devise the terms and conditions of standard contracts between suppliers feeding into the grid and the utility. The value of electricity in one direction or the other is calculated by a set of formulas established in the contract terms. The supplier needs to meet a number of legal and administrative requirements in order to have access to this type of contract, including having obtained the corresponding construction and generation permits.

Since the publication in 2008 of the Law for the Use of Renewable Energy and Energy Transition Ficing was granted new responsibilities to the CRE, so that in 2010 this Commission published new interconnection contracts: 1) Grid Interconnection Contract for renewable energy sources in small scale, applied to electricity generators in low voltage with capacities until 10 kW for residential use and until 30 kW for general use, this contract provides benefits such as net metering that is to record and calculate the difference between the power delivered by the generator to the grid and the energy delivered by the utility to develop consumption bill; 2) Grid Interconnection Contract for renewable energy sources in medium scale, applied to electricity generators in medium voltage with projects until 500 kW, this contract has the benefit of energy exchange in order to store excess energy for use in subsequent months, and 3) Grid Interconnection Contract for renewable energy source or efficient cogeneration, which applies to projects over 500 kW, besides the energy exchange, it also allows recognition of self-supplying power, so the generator can reduce electricity bills. Recently, CRE published Grid Interconnection contract for collective source of renewable energy or efficient collective system of small-scale, it will allow the interconnection of an energy source that is common property of a group of generators in which all owners receive benefits in proportional parts as agreed between them and the utility.

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