Red Eléctrica, technical operator of the Spanish system, has issued a statement in which it has defended its actions in the Canary Islands energy crisis. As explained in the document, the organization “carries out its reports and maintenance plans with technical and legal criteria with the aim of guaranteeing security of supply at all times.”
The installation of new non-renewable generation groups and the updating of existing ones has been paralyzed since 2013 by a legal labyrinth and this has put maximum strain on the Canary Islands system. There is, in fact, a power deficit that makes it difficult to carry out scheduled maintenance, because the system is in danger of collapsing in the absence of backup technologies.
In this sense, Red Eléctrica asserts that “with regard to scheduled generation maintenance plans, the company always prepares them also taking security of supply and applicable regulations as guiding principles.” “Red Eléctrica has never made critical maintenance impossible for the Canary Islands system,” they continue.
One of the keys to the problem in the Canary Islands is the closure of two groups at the Jinámar plant, in Gran Canaria, and the Candelaria plant, in Tenerife. In 2018, some environmental adaptations were authorized and these groups were requested, but Red Eléctrica argued that it was not necessary to carry out this process on them because these islands required only 9 MW and 4 MW of additional power, respectively. That is, their contribution was not necessary.
However, in 2020, when Endesa requested closure, the operator issued an unfavorable opinion. In 2022, it produced a report in which it warned of the power deficit in the Canary Islands, where the generation park is 25 years old on average and there are groups that are over 45 years old.
At the end of July of this year there was a blackout in La Gomera due to a fire at its power plant, which has several groups over 30 years old. Endesa took advantage of a report on this incident, to which EL MUNDO had access, to denounce the situation on the islands.
Red Eléctrica recalls in its statement that its coverage reports are always prepared “taking into account technical criteria included in current regulations to guarantee security of supply in the archipelago” and that these criteria “are not modified.”
Likewise, the firm, which will allocate 800 million euros in investments in the Canary Islands in the coming years, reiterates its “commitment” to the Canary Islands “as the operator and carrier of the system in the islands.” “This commitment translates into the continuous reinforcement of the electricity transmission network of the Canary Islands, for which, after the acquisition of the assets from Endesa in 2011, the company has allocated more than 960 million euros in both renovation work and improvement for the adaptation of the network to the quality standards of the rest of the national territory, as in the development of new transport infrastructures”.