The government group in the Cabildo de Tenerife (formed by PSOE and Cs) has accused the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) of managing the Technological Institute of Renewable Energies (ITER), dependent on the island corporation, “like a ventorrillo” and leaving ” a mess” of irregularities in the company, with works without a license, million-dollar contracts “by hand”, illegal hookups to light and even a kennel in its facilities.
Iberdrola seeks reconciliation with ITER, responsible for the lack of maintenance that paralyzed two wind farms in Tenerife
Further
These criticisms of the management of this body occurred this Tuesday during an extraordinary plenary session held at the proposal of the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) on the stoppage of the Areté and La Roca wind farms, in Arico, which, in their opinion, has meant a loss for the island corporation of about eight million euros until December. These wind farms have been without activity, totally or partially, since a fault occurred on August 8.
In this regard, the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, affirmed that there was a problem in the wind turbines not attributable to ITER or its workers, but rather due to the generation transformation center, whose maintenance is carried out by the companies Iberdrola and Energías Ecológicas de Tenerife. However, last December, the Iberdrola electricity company stated that the fault had resulted from “maintenance problems in the connection installation managed by ITER”. In fact, the company assured that the Granadilla substation also serves the Chimiche II wind farm, owned by EET, which “has operated normally at all times.” Iberdrola then explained to this newspaper that within said substation there are common infrastructures and individual infrastructures for each promoter. Through an infrastructure maintenance agreement signed between ITER and EET, Iberdrola is in charge of maintaining the common area, as he explained, but he pointed out that “it is the obligation of each developer to maintain their own infrastructures.”
Iberdrola then assured that “it is the lack of maintenance of ITER’s own infrastructures that has caused up to 11 shots since 2019, ending up affecting the substation itself.” In addition, he pointed out that the company had repeatedly warned about this issue in the last three years.
Carlos Alonso and Iberdrola
In the plenary session this Tuesday, the Cabildo de Tenerife stated that it is making an economic evaluation of the damage caused and that it will hold both companies accountable, foreseeably through a legal claim, in the belief that the technical work carried out by ITER has been “impeccable”, indicated Martín.
The president has also stated that he will require information regarding whether the nationalist director Carlos Alonso has advised Iberdrola and Energías Ecológicas de Tenerife, which in his opinion, if true, would be incompatible with his position “and ethically very reprehensible”.
The plenary session began with a presentation by the Vice President and Minister of Innovation, Enrique Arriaga, who read the technical reports regarding the stoppage of both wind farms that, he said, are located outdoors in a coastal area and the age of their insulators ceramics is susceptible to these conditions.
Predictably, the extreme weather conditions of the summer of 2022 produced a “shot” on July 21, which was subsequently repeated on August 3, 7 and 8 until Energías Ecológicas decided to disconnect due to the “extreme” risk of explosion in the transformer or even, of an energetic zero on the island.
Arriaga stressed that ITER cannot carry out the diagnosis and maintenance of said infrastructures, which began to come into operation on December 5 and will possibly be at 100% performance in March.
The causes of the failure are not simple and it has been necessary to “scrutinize that fault tree”, so there has been no inaction at any time and, once the expert report is completed, the Cabildo will take the appropriate actions, added Arriaga, who called for “prudence” and not seek “political causes for breakdowns.”
“Absolute illegality” in ITER
However, he pointed out that the current government group found ITER and the Science and Technology Park of Tenerife in an “unfortunate and economically delicate situation” and specifically in the former there was “organizational chaos”.
“We have focused on trying to untangle the skein in things as basic as requesting occupancy licenses because there is nothing, only absolute illegality,” said Arriaga, who compared this situation to doing “dirty work” and for this reason the figure of the CEOs to regularize the situation quickly before summoning the posts of managers.
Pedro Martín, for his part, assured that there were loans between the group companies for more than 18 million euros that were not repaid, contracts for more than 100,000 euros “by hand”, lack of accounting control, bioclimatic homes without a license, illegal down payments to the electrical network “and in the paroxysm of the mismanagement of CC, we have learned that there is an illegal private kennel within ITER. The mess is scandalous.”
The socialist councilor Javier Rodríguez stressed that ITER’s problems must be sought in the past, when decisions were made “very far from neat management” and reported that there were also irregular connections for the water supply, since “it was managed as a authentic ventorrillo dispatching matters in the compadre style ”.
The CC-PNC counselor Antolín Bueno referred to a report from the ITER wind energy department in May 2021 in which he spoke of the need to contract the maintenance of the equipment for the correct operation of the wind farms, and blamed Martín and Arriaga of being responsible for the situation for “doing nothing.”
Likewise, Bueno ordered the president of the Cabildo to expose the alleged irregularities detected in ITER in plenary session and, if he demonstrates them, “he will have my vote”, but in the meantime, he said, the parks affected by the stoppage are only working at 20% of the production.
The president of the Cabildo replied that he “picks up the gauntlet” and will take to a plenary session “the numerous irregularities” in ITER, to detail the work being done to put an end to this “unfortunate” situation, such as the drive to implement state-of-the-art wind turbines. to replace the current ones.
The PP adviser Valentín González pointed out that Iberdrola had warned on several occasions of the deficiencies in the facilities and criticized the fact that, within an environment “of lack of transparency and contradictions”, Pedro Martín assumed the management of ITER, for which he asked if Arriaga “He resigned or was invited to resign.”
Por Sí Podemos, the counselor Cristo González also demanded responsibilities in the face of the lack of diligence and pointed out that her formation has “shrieked” asking that ITER not be allowed to deteriorate further, which, she said, was always considered “the jewel” of the public sector of the Cabildo “Apart from the permanent suspicions of corruption in the use of funds.”
The non-attached counselor María José Belda said that from Arriaga’s intervention it can be deduced that “here we are not prepared to keep the wind farms in good condition”, she asked if, in the face of extreme weather, extreme maintenance had also been planned and questioned whether the “dirty” work ” consists of ending up privatizing a public company that should have been leading and has suffered “an incredible brain drain”.
