Directorate-General for Energy and Geology publishes new orders on Decree-Law 15/2022

Order (DGEG) No. 14/2025, Of April 2, And Order (dgeg) No. 16/2025, Of April 7

The Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) published Order no. 14/2025, of April 2, and Order no. 16/2025, of April 7, which establish the rules for the interpretation and operationalization of articles 14 and 58 of Decree-Law no. 15/2022, of January 14 ("DL 15/2022").

Order no. 14/2025, of April 2, clarifies the following:

1. For the purposes of Article 14(10)(a), the start of construction is considered to have occurred upon submission to DGEG of one of the following documents:
   1. A copy of the prior notice submitted to the Municipal Council, including the liability statement by the project’s technical author, accompanied by the receipt proving payment of the applicable urban fees;
   2. A copy of the document proving the approval of the execution project, in cases where the urban procedure follows the prior licensing modality, accompanied by the receipt of payment of the applicable urban fees.
2. The start of construction, for the purposes of suspending the deadline set out in Article 14(7), is the date of the most recent of the above documents;
3. The suspension also applies to projects whose production license was issued before Decree-Law 99/2024 of December 3 came into force, provided that the operating license is still pending;
4. Network reinforcements carried out under agreements with RESP operators fall under point b) of paragraph 10, as they constitute significant modernizations of the public network, necessary for its reliability and security;

Additionally, a dedicated electronic form will be made available on the DGEG digital platform, with fields for project identification, municipal council, date of submission, and urban procedure number, thus facilitating traceability and sample validation. Subsequent confirmation with the municipality should only be carried out when strictly necessary.

For further information, consult Order no. 14/2025 of April 2, which came into force on April 3, 2025.
 

Regarding Prior Registrations (previously referred to as UPP), Order No. 16/2025 of April 7 clarifies the following:

1. In view of Article 58 of DL 15/2022, which refers to Article 14, it is necessary to apply to prior registrations the deadline suspension regime established for projects with a production license, with the necessary adaptations, considering that prior registration replaces the production license for power generation centers with an installed capacity equal to or less than 1 MW;
2. The suspension also applies to Prior Registrations under the same terms as paragraphs a. and b. above. In procedures carried out by notification of exemption from prior urban control under Decree-Law No. 30-A/2022 of April 18, a copy of the exemption notification submitted to the Municipal Council must be sent to DGEG, accompanied by any proof of fee payment, if available;
3. In cases where it has been stipulated by the Municipal Council that the work qualifies as being of "scarce urban significance", in addition to the documentation provided for in paragraphs a. and b. above, the letter from the Municipal Council determining this condition must be attached.

For more further, consult Order no. 16/2025 of April 7, which came into force on April 8, 2025.

Order (DGEG) no. 17/2025

Remuneration scheme deadlines

The Directorate-General for Energy and Geology published Order no. 17/2025, of April 9, which determines that, for the purposes of article 17 of Decree-Law 15/2022, the period for the remuneration schemes must be counted from the date of the Operation License.

For more further, Order no. 17/2025 of April 9, which came into force on April 10, 2025.