Royal Decree 997/2025 approving urgent measures to strengthen the electricity system

The Royal Decree has been published, reinstating some of the urgent measures contained in the repealed Royal Decree-Law 7/2025 to strengthen the electricity system.

1.- INTRODUCTION

On 22 July 2025, the Congress of Deputies repealed Royal Decree-Law 7/2025, of 24 June, approving urgent measures to strengthen the electricity system (“RDL 7/2025”). Consequently, and after being submitted for public information, Royal Decree 997/2025 of 5 November, approving urgent measures to strengthen the electricity system (the “Royal Decree” or “RD 997/2025″), has just been published in the Official State Gazette (“BOE”).

The Royal Decree contains, for the most part, measures that were already included in RDL 7/2025, which can be enacted with a lower regulatory rank and which contribute to increasing the resilience of the electricity system in response to the blackout that occurred on 28 April 2025, and to responding to the risks and opportunities of the ecological transition.

The Royal Decree focuses, on the one hand, on supervision, control, and transparency, incorporating measures aimed at ensuring compliance with obligations by all agents in the electricity sector and strengthening the technical management of the system. On the other hand, it reformulates the definition of installed capacity for the purposes of obtaining administrative authorizations for both generation and storage facilities. In addition, specific measures are included to simplify and shorten the administrative procedures for granting authorizations for storage facilities, such as the exemption from the need for environmental assessment in hybridizations of facilities where the new storage module is located on previously used land where the original facility has obtained an environmental impact statement, or the halving of the processing times for granting substantive authorizations.

2.- MANDATES

Strengthening of supervision and verification of compliance and data transparency

In response to the blackout of 28 April 2025, the following mandates are issued:

• CNMC: publish (1) a report monitoring compliance with voltage control obligations by all entities in the sector required to comply with them before 9 February 2026, which will be updated quarterly and made public; and will draw up (2) an extraordinary inspection plan for the replacement capacities of all agents participating in the replacement process before 7 August 2026, which will be periodic and carried out every three years.
• REE: submit to the CNMC and MITECO the results of an analysis and review process, which may include a proposal for regulatory changes, of the following aspects:

When a proposal for regulatory amendment is included, it will be approved, if applicable, within six months by the CNMC or MITECO.

3.- DEFINITION OF INSTALLED CAPACITY

RD 997/2025 introduces a complete and systematic restructuring of the definition of installed capacity included in RDL 7/2025, replacing the previous transitional approach with a definitive and more detailed regulatory framework.

The 12-month transitional regime for the Government to amend the definition of installed capacity, with provisional rules applicable until then, is eliminated. Instead, the definitive definitions of installed capacity are established directly.

Based on the fact that a generation facility may consist of one or more power park modules, one or more generation modules, and one or more storage modules, (i) the installed capacity of each of these modules is defined, and then (ii) the capacity of the facility is defined as the sum of the capacities of the modules that comprise it.

Thus, on the one hand, the installed capacity of a generation module is defined as the maximum active power of the most limiting element connected in series (the lowest of the installed capacities of the motor, turbine, alternator, photovoltaic panel, transformer, inverter, or converter group).

When the module is configured by several engines, turbines, alternators, photovoltaic panels, transformers, inverters, or converters connected in parallel, the powers specified on the nameplates of those elements that are in parallel must be added together. Once added, the definition in the previous paragraph will apply.

On the other hand, the installed power of an electrochemical storage module is defined as the lesser of (a) the sum of the maximum active powers of the individual battery cells that make up the module, (b) the maximum active power of the inverter or, where applicable, the sum of the maximum active powers of the inverters that make up the module, or (c) the maximum active power of the transformer or, where applicable, the sum of the maximum active powers of the transformers that make up the module if they were connected in parallel.

The installed power of a facility shall be the lesser of (a) the sum of the installed power of each of the generation modules and storage modules that comprise it and (b) the maximum active power of the facility’s common transformer[1] .

Finally, the maximum power of an inverter or converter is defined as the maximum active power that it is capable of producing in continuous operation.

The new definition of installed power applies to those installations that, having begun the application process, have not yet obtained final operating authorization.

However, this new definition of installed power will not be generally applicable until the Government approves its express entry into force by Royal Decree, except in the following cases:

• For the purposes of administrative authorizations for transmission, distribution, production, and direct lines facilities regulated in Title IX of Law 24/2013, of 26 December, on the Electricity Sector (“Law 24/2013“); and
• For the purposes of registration in the Administrative Registry of Electricity Production Facilities.

4.- REPOWERING

RD 997/2025 defines the repowering of a production or storage facility as the renovation of such facilities, which may include the total or partial replacement or modification of the generation facilities or operating systems and equipment and components, with the aim of replacing the machines, improving their efficiency, increasing the energy produced by the facility, and increasing the installed capacity.

The definition of repowering shall also include the expansion of production or storage facilities, without prejudice to the environmental assessment procedure that may be applicable.

Unlike RDL 7/2025, this Royal Decree does not introduce any incentives or procedural simplifications for repowering, maintaining only the basic conceptual definition and eliminating all the specific benefits that RDL 7/2025 granted to these projects, as follows:

• It repeals the provisions of RDL 7/2025 that established a 50% reduction in processing times (both substantive and environmental) for repowering projects involving less than 25% of the original installed capacity. This elimination represents the loss of an important procedural incentive for smaller repowering projects.
• It completely eliminates the provisions of RDL 7/2025 that established that the environmental impact assessment (ordinary or simplified) of repowering projects would be limited solely to the possible impact derived from the modification or expansion with respect to the original project. This elimination removes a significant simplification of the environmental procedure.

5.- STORAGE

• This introduces a significant change with respect to RDL 7/2025, as the conditions for applying the emergency procedure are partially relaxed, while environmental requirements are tightened, establishing broader exclusion criteria based on any type of environmental impact assessment.
• Authorization procedures for hybrid storage projects that fall within the competence of the General State Administration are declared urgent for reasons of public interest, provided that they do not require an environmental impact assessment.
• The hybridization of electricity production facilities through the incorporation of electrochemical storage modules will be exempt from the simplified environmental assessment procedure, provided that (i) the storage is located within the perimeter of the original generation project, and (ii) the generation project already has a favourable environmental impact statement or environmental impact report.
• The AAP and AAC will be processed jointly in accordance with Royal Decree 1955/2000, of 1 December, which regulates the activities of transport, distribution, marketing, supply, and authorization procedures for electricity facilities (“RD 1955/2000”), with the following special features:
  
  • Application for the simplified authorization procedure (accompanied by the implementation project and documentation proving exemption from the environmental assessment procedure).
  • The process of informing other public administrations and conditions and the approval of the implementation project (“Information and Approval Process”) are unified, reducing the deadlines by half.
  • The public information procedure will be carried out simultaneously with the Information and Approval procedure, reducing the timeframes by half.

6.- OPERATING AUTHORIZATIONS

RD 1955/2000 is amended to more clearly reflect the existing differentiation[2] between the phases of operating authorization, providing greater legal certainty in the application of the authorization regime.

Thus, it is established that, prior to the final operating authorization and at the request of the facility owner, a provisional operating authorization for testing must be granted.

Therefore, the authorization process for (i) electricity generation facilities, or storage facility modules[3] in existing generation facilities, and (ii) storage facilities and modules, will consist of two phases: a provisional operating authorization phase for testing and a final operating authorization phase.

In the case of production facilities, the provisional operating authorization for testing and the final authorization will allow the facility to be registered in the administrative register of electricity production facilities, on a preliminary and final basis, respectively (without prejudice to the rest of the documentation required for registration in the production register).

On the other hand, in the case of several production facilities that evacuate at the same connection point and share part of the evacuation infrastructure, when the owner of one of the facilities wishes to commission their facility (A) prior to the production facility (B) that contains the common evacuation infrastructure, a partial provisional operating authorization may be issued for testing the common evacuation infrastructure authorized within facility (B) in the name of its owner. This authorization may be extended to production facility (A) provided that it is expressly stated that it allows the evacuation of all the energy generated by facility (A).

7.- EXPIRY OF ACCESS AND CONNECTION PERMITS

RD 997/2025 eliminates the measures to relax administrative milestones that had been included in RDL 7/2025. This removal represents a significant tightening of the regime for compliance with administrative milestones for electricity generation projects, causing developers to lose important protection mechanisms that had been introduced by RDL 7/2025 to deal with exceptional or procedural circumstances beyond their control.

However, the Royal Decree introduces significant changes in relation to the expiry of access and connection permits:

• The extension period for the expiration of access permits is extended: whereas previously only pumped storage facilities could request an extension of up to seven years, now both these facilities and offshore wind technology facilities can extend the period to nine years (instead of seven).
• The voltage threshold for demand facilities subject to automatic expiration is significantly reduced: the requirement to formalize an access contract for at least 50% of the capacity granted now applies to facilities with a connection point at a voltage equal to or greater than 1 kV (previously 36 kV).
• A partial automatic expiration of the access permit is established for the unused portion of capacity, calculated as the difference between the total capacity initially granted and the greater of the powers actually contracted in the access contract. This means that if a holder obtains a permit for a certain capacity but only formalizes a contract for a portion of it, they will automatically lose the right to the uncontracted capacity.
• A mechanism for progressive partial expiration is introduced once the initial three-year contract maintenance period has elapsed. If, after this period, the maximum power of the access contract is less than the capacity of the current permit, partial expiration will occur for that difference if the situation continues for five years in high-voltage installations or three years in low-voltage installations.
• Access permits for storage facilities that feed energy into the grids are specifically regulated, establishing a link between the two permits required for these facilities: the one corresponding to their status as consumers (when they draw energy from the grid) and the one corresponding to their status as generators (when they feed energy into the grid). If the access permit linked to their status as a generator expires, the permit corresponding to their status as a consumer will also automatically expire, thus recognizing the dual and interdependent nature of these facilities.
• A temporary survival rule for permits is introduced after the termination of the access or supply contract. Unlike immediate expiration, permits remain valid for a grace period of five years for high-voltage facilities and three years for low-voltage facilities from the termination of the contract. This provision gives the holder a time frame to formalize a new contract without permanently losing their access permit, providing greater flexibility and legal certainty in the event of contractual changes.

8.- GUARANTEES

• Royal Decree 1183/2020, 29 of December, on access and connection to electricity transmission and distribution networks (“RD 1183/2020”) is amended to clarify the treatment of storage facilities in the processing of access and connection procedures.
• The express request for the body competent to grant authorization for the facility to rule on whether the guarantee is adequately constituted must include, except in certain cases, the node and voltage of the transmission or distribution network to which access and connection is to be requested.
• Criteria are introduced so that a facility continues to be considered the same for the purposes of maintaining demand access permits (something that was already being done for generation permits). In this regard, the demand or storage facility will not be considered the same in any of the following cases:

• • If its geometric centre is moved more than 10 km;

  • If there is a change in the CNAE code associated with the facility, provided that such change affects the Division or Group of the CNAE code.
  • If there is a reduction in demand access capacity, provided that this represents a reduction of more than 50% of the access capacity originally requested and granted.

• The financial guarantee required for the processing of access and connection procedures for demand and storage facilities will be canceled when the applicant formalizes the access contract for a contracted power in any of the periods of at least 50% of the access capacity granted (a contracted power specifically “in period P1” is no longer required, but rather “in any of the periods”). In addition, this guarantee will also be canceled when the guarantee constituted for the processing of access and connection procedures for generation facilities is canceled.

• The refund of the demand guarantee amount is expressly regulated in the event of non-acceptance by the consumer of the proposed technical conditions.

9.- OTHER MEASURES

• The legal provision of Article 53.3 of Law 24/2013, relating to the regime of authorizations required for research, development & innovation projects, is developed so that platforms used to connect research, development & innovation generation or storage facilities may obtain AAP and AAC for standard projects. Once these standard projects have a favourable environmental impact statement, AAP, and AAC, in order to disconnect a prototype and connect a new one, only an operating authorization will be required if the new prototype does not exceed the technical parameters set out in the authorizations or those assessed environmentally.
• In response to the slow pace of development of electric vehicle charging points on the road, the deadlines that distribution companies must meet to implement the network extensions required to meet new supply needs are clarified. In addition, these deadlines are regulated for the first time for the distributor when the new network extension is carried out by an installation company hired by the applicant, and not by the distributor itself.

FOOTNOTES

[1] A transformer shall be understood to be common to the installation or, where applicable, that several transformers connected in parallel are common to the same installation, when the electrical energy generated by the installation is evacuated through said transformer or set of transformers in parallel.

[2] Royal Decree 413/2014, of 6 June, regulating the production of electrical energy from renewable energy sources, cogeneration, and waste, develops the legal and economic framework for production, introducing provisional operating authorization for testing and definitive operating authorization.

[3] Although the proposal of Royal Decree refers to “or modules of generation facilities in existing generation facilities,” we understand that this is a clerical error and that the legislator actually refers to “or modules of storage facilities in existing generation facilities.” RDL 7/2025 contained this same clerical error.

For more information, please contact our Energy Department.