The outgoing Spanish government has approved a scheme for capacity payments to reward plants which remain on standby to cover peaks of demand or troughs in national wind generation. Under the scheme, capacity payments ranging between $1,649 MW and $6,270 MW will be paid to the qualified power plants.
The scheme will come into operation in December 2011. The calculation of the total subsidy is based on a subsidy of €5,150/MWh for the remainder of 2011 and 2012 multiplied by a coefficient related to the nature of generation. This will be a factor of 0.912 for coal-fired plants, 0.913 for combined cycle gas turbines, 0.877 for fuel-oil and 0.237 for hydro, including pumping.
To qualify, the plants have to be available for 90% of the time in the two peak time bands. The operators have been given two weeks in which to notify the ministry of the plants that will be entered into the scheme. For future years, the interested parties have to present the ministry a list in the September prior to the year in which they hope to receive the payments.