The Catalan Energy Institute and the IDAE agree to expand the line of aid for energy efficiency in industry by 35 million euros

The Department of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat, through the Catalan Energy Institute (ICAEN), and the Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE) have agreed today to expand by 35 million euros the line of aid for energy saving and efficiency in industry. The line, which closed on 31 December last year, benefited 293 companies with an overall amount of 48.7 million euros. The extension will allow to attend to the hundred requests that were on the waiting list and also new applications. All the companies that want to take part in it will be able to present the documentation until the next 30 June.

The Director General of Energy, Industrial Safety and Mining Safety and Director of the ICAEN, Manel Torrent, and the Director General of the IDAE, Joan Groizard, explained this in a meeting they held today with representatives of the Cluster of the Energy Efficiency of Catalonia (CEEC). Subsequently, they visited the metallurgical company AMES, which has embraced this line to increase the efficiency of its production process and decarbonize it by replacing a gas furnace with a partially electric one.

The aid is intended to encourage investment in production and auxiliary equipment - equipment renovation, innovation in production processes, etc. - and the installation of energy management systems. The aim is to generate energy savings and efficiency in the manufacturing industry, reduce energy consumption and emissions, and increase competitiveness. They also contribute to boosting the sector of energy equipment and services, such as engineering, installers or manufacturers, among others. In total, the almost 400 aid applications received by the ICAEN add up to an induced investment of 279 million euros.

Torrent explained that these data "show that Catalan industry is aware of the energy transition and the decarbonisation of economic activity." He also highlighted the good work of the ICAEN, which has acted "as a direct interlocutor of companies" and expressed the will of the Generalitat to "not only manage these funds, but to decide and prioritize actions to encourage, as that we are the ones who know the reality of the country's industry the most ”. Finally, Torrent has demanded equal treatment for Catalan companies, which currently have to pay a more expensive access toll than those in much of Spain, and the revision of the price formation system, as Spanish SMEs currently pay 21.3% more for energy than their European competitors. "It cannot be that all the competitiveness that is gained with energy saving and efficiency is lost due to poor regulation," he summed up.

The economic endowment of the line comes from the National Energy Efficiency Fund, made up of contributions from the electricity tariff - that is, from consumers - and created at the request of the European Union so that states can contribute to the energy transition. The IDAE determines and territorializes the amount of the fund, and the ICAEN is the body in charge of managing them and receiving and evaluating applications from companies.

Industry consumes 27% of Catalonia's final energy, only behind the transport sector. The Generalitat has different support programs in place to help save energy and efficiency in industry, in line with the aim of decarbonising the Catalan energy system by 2050 and tackling the climate emergency situation that lives the planet. 70.9% of greenhouse gas emissions and 85.8% of CO2 emissions are related to the energy sector. Source: gencat