The autonomous Government is not willing to wait another minute to solve the energy problems suffered by the Canary Islands. All the procedures for the renewal of power are long and require extensive procedures that depend on the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, but there is no time. According to the island Executive, the latest reports from Red Eléctrica de España reflect a lack of electrical power generation in Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventurawhich requires urgent measures to be put in place to guarantee the security of supply throughout the Archipelago and leave behind the possibility of a repeat of zero energy like the one that occurred in La Gomera at the end of July.
As? The Department of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands considers that the way to speed up the process is to resort to declaring an energy emergency in the Islands. This was announced on Tuesday, during the plenary session of Parliament, by the person in charge of the area, Mariano Zapata. This tool will allow hurry up to Madrid to approve and expedite “realistic” proposals that provide an immediate solution to the problem.
Waiting for the resolution of the public tender to renew the island’s electrical systems is not an option since the deadlines for installation last a minimum of five years. “We cannot wait, the contest must be launched urgently, but in the meantime we must establish effective measures within a year,” says the Deputy Minister of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands, Julieta Schallenberg.
The declaration of energy emergency, which is expected to be approved in the next Government Council, will be taken to the Canary Islands Parliament with the aim of the document obtaining the unanimous support of the Autonomous Chamber. “We will convey to the Ministry the consensus of all the political forces of the Islands and it will serve as support for us to apply pressure,” confides the vice-counselor.
Equipment update
The urgent plans that the regional Executive wants to implement, once the energy emergency is declared, are linked to guarantee security of supply in the Archipelago. Solutions that the Government will seek with the system operator, Red Eléctrica. «The measures many times go through the renewal or updating of conventional equipment» explains Schallenberg. But the idea is to go further. The department headed by Zapata plans, in parallel, to streamline the processes for the implementation of renewable energies, interconnections and storage systems. “For renewables to contribute to the security of supply, there must be storage systems, which is why we will ask that systems such as hydropumping be urgently expedited,” clarifies the deputy minister. They are also considering other solutions such as strategic batteries, flywheels or others related to network stabilization.
The Canarian Government defends that the “emergency” must last, at least, until the mechanisms that give the Archipelago security of supply have been enabled. “This is not an emergency due to a volcano, it is a structural issue that must be resolved,” defends Schallenberg. For this reason, it is proposed that the emergency situation and the measures be prolonged until the resolution of the public tender for the renewal of the island’s electrical systems is installed. “Until we have new machines up and running, we have to have urgent measures in place,” he insists.
The Executive does not rule out following a path that was proposed on Tuesday in the Regional Chamber by the spokesperson for the Gomera Socialist Group Parliamentary Group, Casimiro Curbelo, focused on demanding that the State exempt the Islands from the provisions of Law 17/2013 of October 29, with the aim of facilitating the procedures that allow the installation of new generation systems for thermal power plants. “The Government of Spain has not been agile, nor has it forced Endesa to make the appropriate renovations, and it has even ignored a report from Red Eléctrica on the provision of new thermal power plants on each of the islands,” points out the man from Gomero. .
For the vice-counselor, this path can be explored but it would also entail an extensive processing period. “The laws are not modified in three months,” recalls Schallenberg, who insists on activating “more immediate” plans.
The president of Fepeco (Provincial Federation of Construction Entities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife), Oscar Izquierdo, yesterday supported Zapata’s decision to opt for the declaration of an energy emergency. The spokesperson for the builders pointed out that the declaration should be understood as the first measure to guarantee security of supply and in no case, as a renunciation of the objectives of development and implementation of renewable energies.
