Received and rejected. The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge received the proposals raised by the previous Canary Islands Executive – led by Ángel Víctor Torres – to solve the problems of electrical power in the Canary Islands and rejected them, considering them “legally unviable”. The department led by Teresa Ribera responded yesterday, through a statement, to information that suggests that the State, aware of the problems in the Islands, ignored requests for helphere are the proposals of the Department of Ecological Transition, led at that time by the socialist José Antonio Valbuena.
“The proposals submitted so far by the Canary Islands Government have been manifestly contrary to what was authorized by the European Commission,” defends the Ministry in the note, which specifies that any additional solution in the short term must be compatible with the 2020 decision of the European Commission on the conformity of Royal Decree 738/2015, with the State Aid framework. «The measures proposed are contrary, so they would have required a new authorization procedure“, Add.
According to the Ministry, The Canarian Ministry requested that the national Government, through a Royal Decree-Law, will grant the additional specific remuneration regime to the new plants necessary in the Islands to guarantee supply, without subjecting them to a competitive competition procedure. But this clashes with those authorized by Europe.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition claims to have had constant contact with the Ministry
The previous regional Executive, for its part, defends that emergency processes without competition are justified as they are an outermost region. And precisely this was what the Ministry conveyed to the Ministry when what was proposed from the State was prepare a draft ministerial order to recognize the cost of the measures emergency measures that could be adopted by the regional authorities.
The Valbuena team clarified to the State that given the high power levels required in the short term and the high associated investment costs, “the solution through ministerial order is not the ideal mechanism to solve the existing problem” because the situation of coverage deficit that occurs in the Islands has become a structural problem and not a temporary one. . Among other reasons, due to the age of the generating park.
The central government sent the draft in April and the Valbuena team responded on May 31or, after analyzing it technically and legally with companies in the sector. But the regional Executive did not hear from the Ministry again.
Red Eléctrica reports indicate that Gran Canaria will lose 36% of power in 2028
Precisely, a large part of the statement sent yesterday by the department headed by Ribera focuses on explaining that the Ministry has maintained constant contact with the Canarian Ministry. «“The Ministry has always responded to each and every meeting request from the Ministry and has held multiple telephone conversations at different decision levels,” point. The note specifies that three meetings were held in 2021, another two in 2022 and four during 2023.
The disagreement between administrations occurs despite the fact that in the previous legislature they shared a political color. Now it is the turn of the new Minister of Ecological Transition, Mariano Zapatawhich has taken control of the problem and has set out to solve it. To this end, the procedures have already begun to declare an energy emergency in the Islands. The objective is to bring to Madrid a document supported by all parliamentary groups that will serve to apply pressure and achieve the implementation of emergency measures. Furthermore, the new team from the Canarian Ministry has not lost contact with the Ministry since the energy zero occurred in La Gomera at the end of July. Since then, weekly telematic meetings have taken place. The last one, last Tuesday.
60% of the Archipelago’s electrical system is obsolete
Age is a degree, but when it comes to electrical systems it is no advantage. Quite the opposite. The Canary Islands are mired in an energy emergency precisely due to the age of the production facilities, which in 60% of cases have already exceeded their useful life. Of the 97 groups installed in the thermal power plants of the Archipelago, 60 are obsolete as they are more than 25 years old. But there are more, 34 of them reach 35 and thirteen are over 45 years old. Which puts the supply in the Islands at risk and opens the possibility of new energy zeros such as the one suffered in La Gomera last July. And the most veteran groups generate 47% of the current power of the Islands, that is, 1,114 megawatts of the 2,355 that exist.
The situation does not come as a surprise to either the Canary Islands or the State, since Red Eléctrica has been warning since 2021 in its reports that there are security problems in the electrical system in the Islands due to the lack of electrical power generation. At the beginning, the operator especially insisted on the need to increase the generation quota until it had an additional 120 megawatts in Gran Canaria and 80 in Tenerife. But with the passage of time, the urgency has reached the rest of the Archipelago and the Annual Demand Coverage Report of the Canary Islands electrical system – in which the needs are set out for the 2024-2028 horizon – detects the “urgent “need” to install additional power for coverage starting in 2024 in all the Islands’ systems.
This document, among other issues, reflects the power available in the Islands in the next four years. And the data points to a loss of more than 20% on all the islands as a result of the aging of the groups. Gran Canaria, between now and 2028, will reduce its available power by 36%, Tenerife by 23%, Fuerteventura by 36%, Lanzarote by 39%, La Gomera by 22%, El Hierro by 20%, and La Palma will lose half of its available power (50%).
