The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès i Garcia, announced today that "on October 4, the Government will approve the launch of the public energy company of Catalonia"."Based on renewable energies, it will serve to make use of all the potential energy generators that the buildings of the Generalitat of Catalonia have", detailed the head of the Executive from New York, accompanied by the Minister of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, Teresa Jordà i Roura, with whom he participated in the opening ceremony ofClimate Week.

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Speaking to the media, the head of the Government has highlighted that this company will generate a turning point, since "with this new instrument we will put all the real estate heritage of the Generalitat at the service of the fight against climate change and will also serve to improve the energy efficiency of all the public services of the Generalitat".

For her part, Minister Jordà stressed that the Government's aim is "to put energy at the service of the common good" and pointed out that "for the first time in the history of Catalonia, the country will have a public energy company to influence from the public sector, causing a substantial improvement in the Catalan energy market".

The public energy company will be established as a joint stock company, anonymous and sole-propietor, with direct participation of the Generalitat de Catalunya and will act as its own means to improve the Catalan energy market. This improvement will be focused on the supply of the Generalitat itself and its bodies, since it will guarantee that energy consumption ceases to be an expense and begins to be an investment with savings in the short and medium term and, once the investment is amortized, it will become a source of income.

This energy will be the public instrument of the Generalitat to promote the democratization of energy with territorial cohesion, with investment capacity in electricity generation, in electric car charging services, in storage services, in flexible demand aggregation services, and in the supply of energy to the administration itself.

Power generation

It will promote self-consumption or distributed generation projects in all public buildings of the Generalitat, occupying 100% of the available space and suitable to each location. These facilities can become the basis for shared self-consumption and energy communities in which nearby vulnerable families can participate.

It will also develop its own projects or shared with local entities, providing their technical knowledge in particular areas, and will be able to participate in a percentage of private projects that have the approval of the territory. In addition, it will manage the hydroelectric power plants as they run out of their current concessions. In this sense, the Department of Climate Action announced at the end of May the start of the file to recover the management of the first three hydroelectric plants (Can Trinxet, Cúbia and Vilana).

Energy supply

It will provide an energy supply policy that allows the purchase of renewable energy with bilateral agreements from local generators.

Commercialization of energy

It will be able to carry out its marketing activity by establishing a link between generation and consumption, managing surplus self-consumption, offering a valuable proposal to local entities, generating income from the energy supply to the Generalitat and potentially to the rest of the Catalan public sector.

Energy supply

It will provide an energy supply policy that allows the purchase of renewable energy with bilateral agreements with local generators.

Energy marketing

It will be able to carry out its marketing activity by establishing a link between generation and consumption, managing surplus self-consumption, offering a value proposition to local entities, generating income from the energy supply to the Generalitat and potentially to the rest of the Catalan public sector.

Energy storage and strategic projects

It will be able to invest and participate in energy projects that are considered strategic for the country's energy security. In this sense, the new storage and flexibility needs in a system with a greater presence of renewable generation will require strategic infrastructures of the country in which the presence of the public body will be required so that it can affect capacity costs.

The public energy company will carry out its functions in accordance with the separation of activities provided for in the Electricity Sector Law and others that correspond to it in the energy sector. For this reason, the company may create commercial companies and other legal entities for the various activities in which it operates and that will form part of the business group.The energy company that is the object of this government agreement would not be able to participate in the distribution activity since it will have interests in generation, marketing, aggregation and charging services. Despite this, its statutes increase the possibility of incorporating the distribution activity that, in any case, would be considered as an independent activity that could be part of the energy business group if agreed by the Government.

Key tool for the energy transition

Public energy will be a key tool to accelerate the energy transition in Catalonia, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. A distributed, democratic energy model, with territorial cohesion and participated by citizens, for which it is essential to have a public instrument with investment capacity in electricity generation, distribution, electric car charging services, storage services, flexible demand aggregation services, and marketing services linked to these new economic models.

Participation in Climate Week and the General Assembly of the Under 2 Coalition

Aragonès made the announcement during his participation in Climate Week in New York, the world's leading climate event of the year prior to COP-27, the United Nations Climate Conference, to be held next November in the Egyptian city of Sharm al-Sheikh. Together with the Minister for Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, Teresa Jordà i Roura, the President is taking part in the events organized by The Climate Group and in the General Assembly of the Under2 coalition, made up of states and regions around the world that are working for zero emissions by 2050.

During the press conference, the Head of Government reiterated the Government's commitment in the fight against climate change and explained that participation in this event will allow "to promote the creation of alliances between the different actors from around the world".

On Tuesday, the president and counselor will meet with economist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs, internationally recognized for his work related to sustainable development, adviser to the United Nations and former director of The Earth Institute at the University of Columbia.