The decision of the General Directorate of Energy, dependent on the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning, is in line with the mandatory report of the system operator, Red Eléctrica de España (REE), Yes OK Endesa maintains that “these are facilities that have widely exceeded their useful life, that they do not meet the technical or technological conditions to be able to provide emergency operation and that, due to their situation of technological obsolescence, they do not have availability and supply of standard spare parts in the market.
The general director of Energy, Rosa Ana Melián Domínguez, supports the proposal of the head of the Transportation and Generation service, Florencio Blanco, and rejects the request that Endesa formulated on September 30, 2020 “due to the impact on demand coverage, on the security of the transmission network and on the maintainability of the electrical system.”
Among the arguments that justify such a decision, it is cited that the elimination of these groups from the Las Caletillas plant “supposes a reduction of the available power in Tenerife’s electrical system of 74.56 MW (megawatts)”. Likewise, the lack of this equipment increases the probability of loss of load and aggravates the situation in the event of unavailability or to carry out scheduled maintenance. Regarding the security of the transport network, the closure of these steam groups leads to, «in certain scenarios, overloads occur in the event of simple contingencies that can only be solved by load shedding, making it difficult or even impossible for maintenance work or the development of the transmission network or the rest of the generation groups.
Compensation
In the resolution published by the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC), Endesa clarifies that if it were required to continue to carry out its generation activity “it would be necessary to recognize an adequate remuneration regime” that compensates it “with a reasonable profitability”. The electricity company recalls that “the refusal to close would entail the restitution of the damages that this refusal causes it”, in the event that the groups for which the company requests their demolition were forced to keep operating.
It so happens that, through a resolution issued on December 22, 2020, the General Directorate of Energy Policy and Mines of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge granted limited operation for steam groups 5 and 6 of the power plant. Las Caletillas. It established 937 hours of operation from January 1 to August 17, 2021, as well as 188 hours from that date to December 31, 2021. As of January 1, 2022, they will only be able to operate for a maximum period of 500 hours per year.
