The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism denied tonight that Alcoa is left out of the next interruptibility auction, and describes as "false" that this company has been vetoed, according to an explanatory note.
"It is not possible to exclude any company when the accreditation process has not even been opened," Ministry sources reported in the note.
They added that once the accreditation period opens, scheduled for the month of May -since the auction will take place in the second half of June-, it will be determined which companies are beneficiaries of the incentives for the interruptibility service during the last semester. .
The order that regulates the auction, the sources added in the note, "plans to be able to accept in the aforementioned bid a company that has given up providing the service in the previous period for exceptional reasons."
The clarification issued by the Ministry of Industry is disclosed after this Thursday Miguel Duvison, general director of Operation of Red Eléctrica de España (REE) -manager of the electrical system that organizes the auction called by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition-, affirmed that when a service provider renounces providing it in the year in which it was assigned, it cannot be submitted to the next auction.
The interruptibility service is a demand management tool that provides flexibility and rapid response for the operation of the system in situations of imbalance between generation and demand, for which certain industries are compensated for disconnecting from the system when it needs it.
Interruptability auctions discount electricity prices to companies willing to disconnect from the system if necessary.
Since 2014, the interruptibility service has been managed through a competitive auction mechanism, that is, it is organized in a series of blocks that are assigned to interested parties willing to charge less compensation.