Urgent measures to strengthen the electricity system

Royal Decree-Law 7/2025, of 24 June, approving urgent measures to strengthen the electricity system ("RDL 7/2025"), was published in the Official State Gazette on June 25 and, in general terms, entered into force on the same day of publication. It sets out a varied range of measures affecting markedly different areas of the energy sector: system management, transmission grids, renewable energy projects, storage and self-consumption.

The formal justification of these measures is grounded on the "need to strengthen the resilience, robustness and stability of the electricity system" (cf. the Preamble) following the grid blackout on April 28, 2025. However, the emergency lawmaker has gone far beyond these goals. RDL 7/2025 has become a kind of "omnibus provision" with a cross-cutting impact on energy regulations and a direct bearing on most market participants.

We highlight the following key aspects

• It incorporates measures related to the management of the system, focusing on voltage control, grid management and supervision and improving coordination and responsibilities among the different sector agents.
• It modifies dispatch priority to favor storage, it promotes the role of independent aggregator and it regulates additional aspects within the framework of the expiration of access and connection permits. 
• The administrative operating procedure for renewable energy facilities is divided into two stages: a provisional permit and a definitive permit. Partial operating permits for shared infrastructures are allowed, provided that the total evacuation of the energy generated is guaranteed and is expressly reflected in the permits.
• It redefines the fifth milestone of RDL 23/2020, linking it to obtaining a provisional administrative operating permit for testing. In addition, a new regime of extensions is established to certify compliance with this milestone.
• Owners sharing evacuation infrastructures must sign agreements to share joint and several liability. It redefines installed capacity for generation and storage plants, applying specific criteria based on the type of connection and equipment involved.
• It streamlines and simplifies procedures for the repowering of plants, thus reducing deadlines.
• This year, the minimum required operating hours and the operating threshold for plants under the specific remuneration regime will be reduced by 25%.
• It relaxes certain criteria associated with self-consumption modalities, it extends the distance to be considered a nearby facility through the grid, and it creates new figures and rights.
• It simplifies and streamlines the authorization and commissioning of electric charging infrastructures, reinforces the statement of compliance of responsibility as an enabling mechanism, and extends the functions of the Spanish transmission system operator (REE) in relation to information on charging points.

In this Legal Flash, our specialists provide a practical analysis of the significance of the measures introduced by Royal Decree-Law 7/2025.

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