2023 Energy efficiency aid for SMEs

The Paris Agreement on climate change set the dates for a series of scenarios that must be reached to achieve a global transition towards a new way of producing and consuming energy.

Since 2021, Spain has its own Energy Transition Law, which laid the cornerstones for protecting small and medium-sized enterprises and defined the associated aid and plans.

But obviously not everything can be about duties and deadlines for companies. A series of aids are needed to promote an essential but costly change. The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan was designed to achieve this, with the aim of channelling the funds approved by the European Union a few years ago, and which includes aid for SMEs during their energy transition processes.

Fair and inclusive energy transition

One of the levers of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan is the so-called "Fair and inclusive energy transition", which aims to create a zero-carbon, competitive and efficient energy sector. It will attract large sums of private capital, reduce uncertainty and provide a predictable regulatory framework, while leveraging the country's huge potential to generate renewable energies and boost the existing value chains, to strengthen competitiveness in domestic and foreign markets.

This lever includes the following components:

• Deployment and integration of renewable energies.
• Electricity infrastructure, promotion of smart grids and deployment of flexibility and storage.
• Roadmap for renewable hydrogen and its sectoral integration.
• A fair transition strategy.

What is PERTE?

The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan includes the PERTE, acronym for Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation, which are projects related to renewable energies, renewable hydrogen and storage.

The PERTE establishes that almost 40% of investments will be allocated to the ecological transition. It aims to underpin the areas associated with Spain's energy transition, in which it holds a solid position, such as renewable energies, power electronics, storage or renewable hydrogen, as well as to strengthen those with a lesser presence.

Some of the PERTE's measures include:

• 25 transformation measures aimed at developing technology and industrial skills, new business models and their implementation in the country's productive fabric.
• The NextGen Energy certification to track projects associated with the same strategic goal and which receive the aid.
• 17 accompanying measures to promote the development of the PERTE, such as education and training, which allows industries to adapt to new technologies and take advantage of opportunities for job creation.
• A system for monitoring, evaluating and analysing the impact on the energy transition value chain in Spain.

Can the PERTE help SMEs?

SMEs can benefit from PERTE funds through so-called "container projects". In them, several companies collaborate with each other. Each one can add value in different areas of the project presented for funding.

Each PERTE of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan has its own specific regulations, which indicate the procedures that must be followed by any company that wishes to benefit from the PERTE. Likewise, a special register will be set up for each PERTE. Companies associated with the development of PERTE projects must sign up in the register.

This measure serves to provide new resources to the Energy Efficiency National Fund, and complements the 2017-2020 Energy Efficiency National Fund.

The energy transition aid is coordinated by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) and managed by the public administrations (autonomous communities and city councils).