SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 29 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands has approved today Tuesday at the session of the Autonomous Commission for Environmental Declaration the declaration of environmental impact of the project for the submarine electrical interconnection between the islands of Tenerife and La Gomera.
The Regional Councilor for the Area, José Antonio Valbuena, highlighted that after completing this process, “the works will begin next year and within a period of two years we will be able to have a key interconnection for the energy transition on our islands, since it will allow a greater penetration of renewable energies, and that will provide stability and robustness to the electrical systems of both islands”.
The Deputy Minister for the Fight against Climate Change, Miguel Ángel Pérez, celebrated the progress made in a project that “will facilitate the reduction of electricity generation costs and will contribute to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and foreign fuels and to improving the environment of the two islands”.
For her part, the General Director of Energy, Rosana Melián, indicated that the culmination of this interconnection “will also mean a reduction in CO2 emissions of some 16 kilotons per year, which will help us make great progress in achieving of the objectives proposed to decarbonize the Canary Islands economy in 2040”.
Thanks to the submarine electrical interconnection between Tenerife and La Gomera, the conditions are established so that La Gomera can be, from the point of view of the network, the first island in the Canary Islands to produce more renewable energy than it consumes in the year, thus avoiding having to resort to other generating systems with fossil fuels, more expensive and polluting.
The electrical interconnection between the islands of Tenerife and La Gomera is a great global technological challenge, due to the depth of the link, the volcanic nature of the terrain and the abrupt orography, both terrestrial and underwater, being the deepest tripolar alternating current link in the world. world to date.
The planned investment to make this interconnection possible exceeds 100 million euros, and the deployment time of the link and the construction of the two extreme substations will be around 24 months.
The development of this interconnection completes other actions to reinforce the network that are being carried out in the west of Tenerife in accordance with current planning and to provide greater security to the electrical system and thus advance the energy transition objectives projected by the Canary Islands.
A STRATEGIC PLAN.
The Tenerife-La Gomera interconnection axis, included in the planning of the electricity transmission network approved by the Council of Ministers, is a strategic project to advance the energy transition of the Canary Islands.
The new electrical axis will contemplate all the infrastructures planned to make possible the electrical interconnection of the island of La Gomera with that of Tenerife:
A 66 kV (kilovolt) underground-submarine power line for the transportation of electricity, double circuit, Tenerife-La Gomera (called Chío-El Palmar), with a 50 MVA (megavoltampere) transmission capacity per circuit. This consists of an underwater section of approximately 36 kilometers in length and runs at a maximum depth of 1,145 meters, with two land sections in La Gomera and Tenerife.
The new 66 kV electrical substation in Chío (Tenerife), in the immediate vicinity of the current Guía de Isora substation, far from urban centers and towns.
The new 66 kV electrical substation in El Palmar (La Gomera), in the vicinity of the El Palmar thermal power plant, which currently supplies the entire island, in order to integrate it into that industrial area, to minimize the length of new connection infrastructures between the transmission network and the distribution network.
For the study of the layout of the Tenerife-La Gomera submarine interconnection, as well as the location of the two new substations, a complete environmental inventory of the terrestrial and marine areas has been carried out.
In the case of the marine environment, a specific oceanographic campaign has been carried out aimed at having a very precise knowledge between Tenerife and La Gomera, collecting all aspects related to the physical, biological and socioeconomic environment in order to define alternatives for passing the cable. The layout of the interconnection has been designed in order to minimize the impact on the landscape and to ensure maximum protection of the vegetation and fauna in the areas through which it runs.
As a constructive peculiarity, it is necessary to highlight the use of the horizontal drilling technique aimed at connecting the underground cable with the submarine. This technique makes it possible to save the first hundreds of meters by passing the electric cable through a microtunnel, below the seabed, thus eliminating the effects on biological communities in the drilling section.
In addition, to guarantee the protection of the interconnection in the underwater section and thus minimize the risk of external attacks on the cables, different techniques will be used depending on the geophysical and geological characteristics of the seabed in each section.
