The major power companies are close to collapse: 83% of the grid is saturated.

BarcelonaMajor power companies are warning of grid saturation and advocating the need to invest to connect to the new demand. In fact, according to the capacity maps published this Tuesday by UFD (Naturgy) and the Association of Electric Power Companies (Aelec)—which includes Endesa, Iberdrola, and EDP Spain—83.4% of the nodes in the electricity distribution network are already saturated, and they are already saturated, and they are already saturated.

This is the first time that these capacity maps have been published, in compliance with Circular 1/2024 of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) and the resolution of June 8, 2025, and they collect, in accordance with the indications of the CNMC and in a standard format: information on each technical and geographical identification, available, occupied or in process capacity, as well as nodes without current capacity, but with the possibility of reinforcement.

According to the large electricity companies, this saturation reflects the increase in requests for access and connection of demand derived from the development and emergence of new agents, together with the regulation of the distribution network that, they criticize, "has followed in recent years an investment pace and criteria different from those required by the growth in demand, much more demanding than those required by the growth in demand."

Digitize the network

To respond to this challenge, "it is essential to strengthen and digitize the distribution network, increasing its capacity to integrate new electricity demand," the utilities point out. Thus, they consider it essential to have a regulatory framework and a remuneration model that allows for the necessary investments; on the one hand, a coherent and stable remuneration model that ensures the recovery of investments and, on the other, adequate financial remuneration that allows for the repayment of capital (own and third-party resources) and attracts the necessary investment to incentivize investment. However, they regret that "the regulatory proposals that the CNMC presented at the end of July do not precisely go in this direction."

Furthermore, once a remuneration model that allows for investment is in place, "the current investment limits will have to be raised," they point out. In this sense, they also call for "agile planning, rapid mechanisms that allow the grid to be reinforced wherever demand requires it, avoiding bottlenecks that hinder the energy transition, and procedures to free up capacity," the report says.

"Without these conditions," they warn, "it will not be possible to connect industry, housing, storage, or electric mobility, and the potential of renewable energies will be wasted and the economic growth and competitiveness that electrification can bring to Spain will be limited," the statement concludes.