Sara Muñoz
Madrid, June 10 (EFECOM).- The decarbonization of the Spanish economy, the result of the transition to a clean energy model, and reindustrialization policies mark a turning point in the electrical system, whose actors urgently need investments to undertake the It is possibly one of its greatest transformations since the postwar period.
Despite their technical complexity, electrical networks, one of the terms of this equation, have become an icon of the claims of a sector that, while defending their “very high quality”, believes that they can be prepared for today, but not for meet the objectives set for the future.
These networks allow electricity to reach the generation plants to the users, guaranteeing that a light bulb turns on when the switch is flipped, and although they are usually talked about in general terms, there are transport and generation networks.
According to sources from Red Eléctrica, the sole transporter and operator of the Spanish electrical system, the transmission networks carry high voltage electricity from the production plants to the distribution substations.
There, it is the distributors – there are more than 300 in the country, including those linked to large groups -, through their distribution networks, that reduce the voltage to levels suitable for consumption, for example, in homes.
According to Red Eléctrica, its transmission network is made up of more than 44,000 kilometers of high voltage lines and some 6,000 substation positions, which makes it “reliable and safe” and a “reference in the integration of clean energy “.
Any reinforcement must be included in the planning that, by law, is prepared for a six-year period every four years by the General State Administration, with the participation of the autonomous communities, and which is approved by the Government after being submitted to Congress after a hearing.
The document establishes the improvement of existing facilities and the necessary actions so that large consumers, generators or other agents that meet the requirements have their respective connection.
The current plan has a horizon of 2026; However, last April, the Executive gave the green light to its specific modification and incorporated 73 actions, with an associated investment of 489 million euros, to execute new strategic projects of the energy transition and the industrial value chain.
For her part, Paloma Sevilla, general director of Aelec, an association that brings together Iberdrola, Endesa and EDP, highlights in a talk with EFE the role of distribution networks, which “have to be the star” of a transition energy that the Old Continent has based on promoting electrification.
“Spain has a very high quality network,” he admits. However, “it is prepared for today, but not to meet its objectives,” clarifies Sevilla, who speaks of goals related to the reduction of emissions and the connection of new industrial projects that arrive in the country and that need electricity.
The debate revolves around the latter, still hot, arising after the recent changes to the planning of the transmission network, in which, Aelec regrets, almost 6,000 megawatts (MW) of network access capacity proposed by the distributors to meet new demands from the industry that have been left out.
“We need to get ahead of ourselves,” asks Sevilla, who understands that Spain cannot afford to lose industry investments, either those “that we want to attract and that need to be connected or those that we want to decarbonize and that need to be increased.” its power”, or it could be relocated.
Nor of the data centers, whose employers’ association, Spain DC, conditions the deployment of electrical networks on the arrival of 38,000 million euros of investment to the Community of Madrid alone.
Aelec demands “agile planning”, which does not force industries to wait “four or five years” to find out whether or not they will have access to the electrical system, and a remuneration for the networks that “allows them to undertake all the necessary development.”
The draft update of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec) to 2030 foresees accumulated investments in networks – without distinguishing the type – worth 53,000 million, to be carried out by the private sector and which, later, will be reflected in the electricity bill of consumers.
And the fact is that the client not only pays for his consumption, but also for the charges or costs of the energy policy, and the tolls or amount to pay for having networks prepared for consumption, hence electricity, no matter how cheap it is, , never be free.
Seville recalls that distributors are a “regulated private activity”, remunerated in accordance with the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), and they cannot invest whatever they want since those costs “are paid by the consumer.”
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has just published a prior consultation on the modification of the limit of investments in networks, responding to a request from the sector, which understands that the context, compared to a decade ago when this ‘cap’ was established to cover the deficit tariff, has changed.
Bridging the gap, electricity companies find certain similarities in the current effort with that of the 1940s, in the Spanish and European post-war period, when “national giants” emerged, such as the French company EDF, and Unesa appeared in Spain. , now Aelec, in 1944.
But here, unlike other European colleagues, the seventeen companies that existed then did not join together to create a large national electricity company, but rather they joined forces to respond to the needs of demand and the electricity sector, says Sevilla, who sees this comparison as possible. “because the transition from non-decarbonized consumption can lead to a similar case.” EFECOM
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