Remuneration of production in the Electricity Industry Bill: farewell to the special production scheme

1. INTRODUCTION: ALL SCHEMES TO BE UNIFIED IN THE «SPECIFIC REMUNERATION» SCHEME
&nbsp,
The Official Gazette of the Spanish Parliament published on 4 October the Electri-city Industry Bill (121/000064, EIB), which repeals the Electricity Industry Act 54/1997, of 27 November, almost in its entirety.
&nbsp,
The bill is included in the Council’s Recommendation regarding Spain’s 2013 National Reform Programme, approved by the Council of the European Union on 9 July 2013. It introdu-ces several new features, aimed at preventing the overwhelming increase in the tariff deficit (currently 26,000 million euros), which has become the industry’s main problem and threatens, in the words of the explanatory notes, the electricity system with bankruptcy. The cornerstone of the new regulation is financial sufficiency, such that, on the one hand, any additional cost must be off-set by the revenue and, on the other, the remuneration of regulated activities (transmission, distribution and, as the case may be, remuneration) will be based on the costs that would be incurred by an efficient and well-managed company.