What is own energy consumption?

With serious concern about the pace light that we are currently living in Spain, one of the trends that is of more interest to the population is own energy consumption.

This innovation for many, or already familiar to many others, is moving towards the use of renewable energy sources and self-consumption of electricity through installations such as solar panels or mini-windmills.

The growth of this type of self-consumption is also aimed at combating the climate change that worries us so much today and that we are already beginning to experience with extreme temperatures, floods, tornadoes…etc.

That’s why we combine high concern for our economy and planet Earth with great advances in technology to bring down the cost of the components needed for these plants through national aid and red tape.it seems that self-consuming energy doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

let’s explain what this concept consists of, how can we implement it and what are its advantages and disadvantages, in this report.

• What is own energy consumption?
• Rules and laws regarding self-consumption of energy: Spain
• Self-consumption with surplus and Self-consumption without surplus
• What do you need for your own electricity consumption?
• What is the difference between life offline and self-consumption?

What is own energy consumption?

Self-consumption of energy is the process by which a person or company consumes electricity generated in our own power plant, usually a photovoltaic or small wind farm, mainly for its own use, and only the surplus electricity that it does not need is fed into the public grid.

These people who carry out this process are known as “prosumers” and in many cases, if you can afford it, we are talking about the privileged because Discounts in tariffs and taxes are offered for this type of electricity.

Rules and laws regarding self-consumption of energy: Spain

In recent years, governments around the world introduced measures to ease the bureaucracy associated with self-consumption and offer economic assistance to users who launch this new system.

The UK and Germany, for example, pay consumers for every kWh they export to the grid. Italy reduces the bill of its customers by an amount proportional to the amount of kWh supplied to the electricity grid.

In the case of Spain, the abolition of the so-called solar tax in 2018 and a new royal decree in 2019 marked the beginning of a new era in this regard.

tax al sol was a “tax” (from 2015 to 2018) introduced by José Manuel Soria, owned by the PP (Government of Mariano Rajoy), which was applied to the accounts of energy producers for their own consumption through solar panels and that it was a hindrance to them. This tax made electricity bills even more expensive.

The new royal decree included such advantages as the encouragement of collective self-consumption, which can take place in residential buildings, the simplification of bureaucracy, which It states that installations up to 15 kW or not more than 100 kW will only have to notify electronically the electricity generation plant in their city.

On the other hand, we have the introduction of the so-called “simplified compensation” for excess. And it’s that when you have leftovers and you don’t use it, it circulates through the meter and pours out into the electrical distribution network, counting down the meter in one-hour increments.

There are two systems in use here:

1. Hourly net balance: this is the difference between the surplus discharged into the grid and the energy used from the grid in one hour. That is, each kilowatt-hour that you fill in as a surplus subtracts one kilowatt-hour of consumption from the network during the same hour. Here you will see the difference and if it is in your favor, we will move on to simplified compensation.

2. Simplified payment: the energy you generate, left over and beyond what you don’t use, is discounted in the hourly net balance, This is recorded in the accounting department and each sales company sets an economic compensation.

The average surplus compensation is 5 cents per kWh. So, on your next electricity bill, depending on what you have produced, you may only have to pay the minimum rates. Of course, it is necessary to clarify that this cluster is monthly.

We leave you the following example for better understanding (time 1 month):

Self-consumption with surplus and Self-consumption without surplus

Although there are various types, the most common are those that refer specifically to this surplus. Self-consumption with surpluses, as we have already explained This allows excess energy to be exported to the transmission and distribution network. Users can sell energy to the grid or profit from the so-called net balance, in which the energy exported to the grid is offset in the account.

On the other hand, we have so-called self-consumption without surplus, which is intended solely to cover the energy needs of the house. You only need permission to access and connect to your consumption sites.

The peculiarity of these installations is that They have an anti-waste system that prevents excess energy from being exported to the grid. Batteries can be added, as with excess self-consumption, in order to store excess energy and use it, for example, at night or on cloudy days.

What do you need for your own electricity consumption?

One of the biggest doubts about self-consumption of electricity is related to the infrastructure needed to produce one’s own energy. Usually Having all the necessary infrastructure requires significant investments, although, of course, in the medium term it is depreciated.

Among the most common needs if we stick to photovoltaic energy are:

• Solar panels: It is obvious. We are talking about a device designed to convert the light reflected in them into an electric current, which will be installed on the roofs of small houses (they must be suitable). It goes without saying that the advantage of living in Spain lies precisely in the large number of hours of sunshine that we have. In addition, thanks to technological development, it is becoming an increasingly affordable system.
• Charge Regulator: This device is responsible for controlling the current collected by the battery in order to avoid dangerous overload. In the absence of batteries, a charge regulator would not be needed.
• Investor: The inverter or converter converts the generator’s direct current into alternating current. Solar panels produce continuous power, so an inverter converts it since most homes use AC.
• Batteries: They store the energy generated by solar panels during daylight hours to be used when the energy can no longer be generated.
• Switch: A switch is a switch that allows you to switch from one power source to another.

What is the difference between life offline and self-consumption?

Self-consumption and disconnection from the network have some common characteristics, but they differ in something very important, namely that Unplugging necessarily implies self-consumption, not the other way around.

In other words, any home that decides to go offline must be completely self-sufficient in terms of its energy needs, since all physical connections to utilities have been cut.

With this, Now you can be 100% sure that your power generation system is completely reliable and reliable. because you won’t be able to flip the switch when your energy runs out.

Thus, there is no need to disconnect from the grid in order to use the electricity generated, for example, from the energy of your solar panels. By synchronizing the photovoltaic system with the grid, the electrical installation can be powered by both.