The group of Canarian Coalition in the Town Hall of Tenerife will request an extraordinary plenary session on the situation of the Technological Institute of Renewable Energies (ITER) of Granadilla. The trigger for the decision has been the loss of 12 million euros that they denounce, a situation that the nationalist councilor Antolín Bueno recently revealed and caused by the stoppage of the Areté (18.4 megawatts) and La Roca (16.8) wind farms, operated by ITER very close to its facilities, in the Granadilla Industrial Estate.
The parks were damaged from the beginning of August until at least the 4th, when the problems in the electrical substation, managed by ITER, were resolved, confirmed sources from Iberdrola, which has another wind farm in the area, Chimiche II, and participates with a subsidiary in Areté and La Roca. The nationalists assure that Areté and La Roca did not work until Thursday. This has caused a loss of between two and three million euros per month, according to CC calculations.
Coalition’s complaint
Bueno assures that since July the situation was denounced and in August the wind turbines of the Granadilla substation stopped. It was raised in a plenary session by CC “but the insular president, Pedro Martín, held Iberdrola responsible for the situation.” Energías Ecológicas de Tenerife, a company 50% owned by Iberdrola, clarified that the shutdown of the wind turbines was caused by problems in the maintenance of the substation that feeds the La Roca and Areté wind farms, a substation managed by ITER. This is stated in a report delivered to the Board of Directors of ITER in May 2021, where it is discussed the need to contract maintenance because it is a service that, in an urgent way, must be carried out for the correct operation of the wind farms. . An internal report on the needs of the Institute, dated last September 26 and submitted to the board of directors, raises the need to hire and improve maintenance by ITER itself.
Energías Ecológicas would have written to ITER asking for explanations and announcing the possibility of taking legal action in response to the accusation made by the island president. Iberdrola sources indicated that they will continue to collaborate with the Institute after the problem was resolved on December 4.
Areté and La Roca are ITER wind renewable energy parks. The multinational energy company has another in the area, the aforementioned Chimiche II. All three are fed by the same ITER electrical substation. On August 8, the wind turbines stopped due to a failure in that substation. Chimiche II continued to function but the other two did not.
maintenance issues
Iberdrola had warned since 2019 of eleven power jumps due to ITER maintenance problems, which was warned in writing. The Areté and La Roca wind farms generate electricity for 14,000 homes and reduce the annual emission into the atmosphere of 144,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 1,000 tons of sulfur oxide, 380 tons of nitrogen oxide and 130 tons of carbon monoxide. carbon. The nationalist councilor Antolín Bueno asked three questions about ITER in the plenary session of the Cabildo yesterday. They were answered by the socialist Aaarón Afonso, director of Coordination and Support for the president, and not the person in charge of the area, Enrique Arriaga, despite the fact that he was present.
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, who is also president of ITER, did not answer Antolín Bueno. In this condition, he hired the lawyer Elena Rodríguez to analyze the situation in this company as in others in the public sector dependent on the island corporation. Among them, also the Scientific and Technological Park of Tenerife. Rodríguez prepared an 83-page audit report that includes a series of irregularities in several of them. Arriaga directs the area, which counts as insular director, with Arancha Artal. She is she replaced José Clemente Díaz in September 2021.
