The Canary Islands follows protocol and turns off their lights

The Canary Islands switched off the lights last night as the new plan for energy saving and efficiency measures, approved by the central government to reduce energy consumption and to comply with European commitments derived from the war in Ukraine, came into force.

As the sun went down, lights went out at 10:00pm across the archipelago in shop windows, on signs, in unoccupied buildings, and those that light up the outside of buildings and cultural features, making, particularly the metropolitan areas, feel very eerie and quite similar to how the streets felt during lockdown when businesses were all closed.

The order was given yesterday to follow the new guidelines for lights and air conditioning, which cannot now go below 27°C in public and commercial places, e.g. shops, department stores, transport infrastructures, cultural spaces, and public areas of hotels, bars, and restaurants.

However, the commerce and hospitality sectors want more clarification as to how these measures must be implemented in their venues. This is because many are very open, so they’re not sure about automatic door closers, and they want clarification on aircon settings, which should be clarified when they have an inspection to get the relevant certification.

What is clear, is the fines in place for non-compliance with the measures, and not getting the correct certification.

In Spain, there are always three levels of sanction (fines) related to any situation: minor infraction, serious infraction, and very serious infraction, and three values of fine related to each, which are the maximum fine that can be issued depending on the severity of the infraction.

In this case, they are as follows:
- Minor infraction: up to 60,000 euros.
- Serious infraction: from 60,001 euros to 6 million euros.
- Very serious infraction: from 6,000,001 euros to 100 million euros.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce explained that the sanctions that will be applied are those included in the Regulation of Thermal Installations of Buildings (RITE), from articles 30 to 38 of Law 21/1992, of July 16, of Industry, on administrative infractions.

However, Minister Teresa Ribera has pointed out: “It is not intended to sanction, it is intended to channel and educate. I don't think anyone is going to impose fines quickly, however, there will have to be a prior procedure in a proportionate way to adopt measures".