Spain recently approved Royal Decree-Law 7/2026, a regulation aimed at accelerating the development of renewable energy projects and organising grid access, in a context of increasing pressure on electricity infrastructure and the need to speed up the energy transition. In this scenario, the sector is beginning to assess its real impact, particularly on energy storage, where doubts persist regarding its effect on project economic viability.
Andrés Pinilla Antón, BESS Sales Director EU & LATAM at Risen Energy, stated: “It does not improve bankability because there is no additional source of revenue as such, but it does provide greater certainty, improved predictability in access and connection, and a more favourable framework for self-consumption and electrification.â€
Within this framework, the executive identifies three main areas of progress: faster permitting through Renewable Acceleration Zones (ZAR), greater transparency in grid capacity, and stricter measures against speculative use of access points.
However, Pinilla Antón noted: “It is true that administrative risk is reduced, but market risk remains. We still have to rely on a market that is being built day by day, and that implies uncertainty.â€
At this point, the capacity market emerges as the key missing element to complete the economic equation for energy storage. Despite having been announced and widely anticipated by the sector, its implementation is still pending, limiting the generation of stable revenues for these assets.
“For a project to be bankable, there must be certainty of revenue. At present, the only two options are having a counterparty with a tolling agreement or a recurring payment scheme,†the executive added.
The absence of this structured market forces developers to rely on variable revenues, derived from ancillary services or energy arbitrage, increasing exposure to risk and making financial close more challenging. In this context, regulatory progress in access and permitting remains disconnected from the economic reality of projects.
In the commercial and industrial segment, certain regulatory limitations continue to constrain deployment. In particular, the current surplus compensation scheme introduces rigidities by failing to properly account for the role of batteries. According to the executive, the power limit for grid injection can restrict the optimisation of hybrid systems, even when effective export capacity is not increased.
This prevents, for example, oversizing renewable installations alongside storage while maintaining the same grid connection point, thereby limiting both technical and economic efficiency.
Pinilla Antón argued that the royal decree “does not move the needle†on energy storage business models. However, he pointed out that the real shift comes from a previous regulatory update.
“With the change to operating procedure 9.2, demand can participate in ancillary services—secondary, tertiary and intraday—and this does change the business model for batteries. It is no longer focused solely on arbitrage or peak shaving but can participate in grid services that make them truly profitable,†he explained.
Access, ZAR and the grid: progress with limitations
One of the central instruments of the new decree is the Renewable Acceleration Zones (ZAR), designed to simplify processes in areas with lower environmental sensitivity and, in theory, reduce administrative timelines for projects.
In this regard, the framework enables more agile permitting schemes, allowing, for example, the removal of certain environmental procedures or the consolidation of authorisations, representing progress in terms of project development.
“For me, it does not make much sense. In many cases, permitting timelines are shortened, but not automatically. You can remove the Environmental Impact Assessment or combine prior administrative and construction authorisations, but nothing is said about grid access or connection availability,†the executive warned, stressing that these improvements largely depend on implementation at the regional level.
Even within these schemes, environmental oversight does not disappear entirely, as competent authorities may still carry out prior reviews and condition project progress.
In this context, the focus shifts back to the real bottleneck of the system: the electricity grid. Despite advances in permitting, capacity availability, and congestion at certain nodes remains the main constraint for new projects. It should be noted that 83.4% of distribution grid nodes are saturated.
“Measures should be taken so that in these renewable acceleration zones demand can be measured, but above all, storage, through flexible access connections to relieve node congestion—even if this involves accepting operational limitations in terms of hours, similar to what the CNMC previously outlined regarding flexible access. I believe they are paving the way for participation in this sense,†analysed the Risen Energy representative.
“Storage is no longer considered a firm demand connection point but is instead viewed under flexible access. This is relevant because it provides regulatory recognition that batteries are flexible, allowing their connection to be assessed not as a rigid, firm demand but as something that can be modulated,†he concluded.
