SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE Nov. 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Department of Ecological Transition of the Canary Islands Government announced on Wednesday that the Executive is required to reimburse the substantial penalties imposed on electricity companies responsible for total or partial energy outages on the islands since 2018, with definitive rulings.
This reimbursement of amounts previously paid by the sanctioned entities, totalling 49.66 million euros, results from an expiration in the processing times of the relevant procedures, as highlighted by the Government in a statement.
The councillor, Mariano Hernández Zapata, stated that this payment “is a result of poor management by the preceding Government”, as “when initiating procedures to seek compensation, they failed to consider the brief timelines for its processing”, which is why now “all Canary Islanders must face the repercussions.”
Zapata also wished to emphasise that some of these penalties “relate to the energy outages experienced in 2018, 2019, and 2020 in Tenerife and La Palma”, where the Government “proclaimed with great fanfare” significant penalties that now must be “reimbursed, and also with interest, elevating that amount to over 50 million, due to inadequate processing”.
Furthermore, he indicated that these penalties need to be settled now and not earlier “when these considerations are recently clarified by the courts, and a final judgement is made, following appeals by the companies affected by these deadlines.”
In light of this issue, he wished to underscore that within just five months at the helm of the Government, a “solution to the problem” has been implemented, amending Law 11/1997 of December 2 that regulates the electrical sector in the Canary Islands, which received unanimous support from the Canary Islands Parliament.
In this manner, as he explained, “we ensure that, in future instances, we have legislation that offers greater legal certainty throughout the sanctioning process, extending the deadlines from the previously contemplated 3 months to the 18 months stipulated by state law.”
Thanks to this change, he noted, “if necessary, the Government will have longer periods to impose penalties on companies within the electricity sector that commit serious infractions, which have led to situations like the complete blackout suffered last month on the island of La Gomera, thus preventing a repetition of past mistakes.”
The councillor also recalled that, despite the Government’s best efforts to avert potential energy outages, the Canary Islands are “in a state of energy emergency”, a declaration made by the current Executive despite the existence of all these penalties and a report from the system operator since 2019, highlighting the energy shortfall on the islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura.
