The Technological Institute of Renewable Energy of Tenerife (ITER), with its principal facilities situated near the port of Granadilla in the southern part of the island, was unable to generate any energy from last Saturday through to Thursday afternoon. This was due to Telefónica’s decision to permanently remove the copper cable linking the photovoltaic and wind facilities of the partners (130 in the case of Solten I) to the control centre. The issue has now been addressed with a new cable (not copper), however, similar interruptions have been reported over the past year and a half according to consulted sources. During these five days, the losses could range from 200,000 to 400,000 euros for the partner owners (mostly) of the connected photovoltaic plants, as the wind facilities are owned by the Institute.
The ITER control centre oversees around 100 megawatts (MW) of renewable installations. Over these five days, it may have experienced a production loss estimated between 2,000 MWh and 4,000 MWh, depending on wind speeds and solar radiation levels. Given a consistent price of 100 euros per MWh during this week, this loss for ITER and the owners of the facilities could indeed fall within the range of 200,000 to 400,000 euros.
Some sources from among the partners express dissatisfaction, highlighting that this issue was not communicated to them. They stress that this situation has recurred due to Telefónica’s disconnection of the cable, resulting in diminished or halted energy production and the subsequent financial repercussions. Moreover, they criticise the extended delay of five days for a new cable to be installed, which they view as anything but efficient, even going so far as to label it negligent. The partners remind that ITER does not own the plants but rather they do, and they incur considerable annual costs for maintenance, leading to their confusion over the lack of timely communication and explanations.
The affected partners are keen to ascertain whether ITER will compensate for the damages incurred due to the production losses, penalties for discrepancies, and ongoing maintenance concerns. Furthermore, they note that Telefónica had been signalling its intention to disconnect the cable for several months, necessitated by regulatory requirements to cease the use of copper. They also insist that numerous unexplained outages have occurred over the past year which were not documented in ITER’s reports, mentioning “they did not correspond to any operational instructions, nor were there calculations for penalties due to equal and fully inexplicable discrepancies.”
Since April 19, 2023, Telefónica has reaffirmed its “commitment to the transformation of its fixed infrastructure to fully transition to fibre to the home (FTTH)”, announcing the closure of all its copper networks which is set to be completed in 2024, coinciding with the operator’s centenary. Additionally, they indicated that the removal of the cables would be conducted by April 2024 at the latest. Critical partners perceive this as Telefónica attempting to be accommodating.
The explanation from the Tenerife Cabildo
Representatives from the Tenerife Cabildo, to which ITER is accountable, conveyed to this newspaper that “the Solten 1 plant is presently operational. An outage occurred on Saturday as Telefónica is in the process of removing copper lines across the national territory. At ITER, we are seeking alternatives, and thanks to our communications partner CanaLink – which operates fibre within the island’s telecommunications network – we have established a temporary link between Red Eléctrica and ITER using this fibre optic connection as of Thursday, along with the cooperation of Red Eléctrica to facilitate this swift connection.”
Moreover, ITER states that “concurrently, we are working with Vodafone, (the company) tasked with creating the connection. Once this work is finalised, the situation will be resolved definitively.”
In light of this perspective, sources from the partners insist that Telefónica has been notifying of this change for some time, asserting that ITER was unprepared despite foreknowledge of the situation and merely shifts the blame onto Telefónica. As a result, they criticise that the underlying issues have been concealed, a viable solution was not pursued, and they are certain that “a patch” has been applied which does not represent a permanent solution. They believe it is extremely serious that a solution was not sought prior to this “patch” and that the problem had the potential to persist for weeks or months, resulting in “enormous losses”, which underscores the “lack of oversight and the precarious state of the maintenance management system of the installations that have been highlighted for an extended period.”
For those affected, there is a sentiment that ITER consistently seeks to find external culprits: “With the turbines, it was Iberdrola; with the works that damaged the reservoirs, it was the Cabildo or the Government of the Canary Islands, and now it is Telefónica. It is always something external impacting ITER, yet it never assumes responsibility for anything. Statistically, that is implausible, and it was also evident in the famous hydrogen project when they could not start the apparatus, but placed blame on the manufacturer… The catalogue of problematic projects and failures that have emerged is overwhelming, yet the narrative remains that others are at fault. The same applies to the land acquisition announced by Pedro Martín for around a million, which had to be withdrawn because an appraisal was never conducted, although the government and ITER affirmed all was well. The outcome turned out to be significantly lower than the amount intended to be allocated to a private party, leading to its abandonment… The list is extensive and scandalous.”
