Energy

The Spanish government will invest €750 million to strengthen the electricity grid.

The package of measures includes installing synchronous compensators for the first time on the Peninsula.

Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, at a press conference this Tuesday.
ARA
08/07/2025
2 min

BarcelonaThe Spanish government approved this Tuesday a series of measures to increase the resilience of the electricity grid in the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands, with a planned investment of 750 million euros. According to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, the list includes 65 actions aimed at incorporating additional tools into the grids to facilitate voltage control and stability against fluctuations.

The Council of Ministers has given the green light to these initiatives, which develop some aspects contained in the Royal Decree-Law of two weeks ago with measures to strengthen the system. after the peninsular blackout of April 28This is the first time that modifications have been approved that focus exclusively on strengthening the operation and control of the grid, compared to others that have been aimed at responding to the demands of new generation and consumption. The actions approved this Tuesday seek to anticipate technical solutions for a progressively renewable electricity system, resulting in estimated savings of around 200 million euros annually.

The new measures will be incorporated as a second specific modification to the Electricity Transmission Network Development Plan 2021-2026, mainly to respond to new demands and projects seeking to connect to the grid. With the current one, the total investment in the planning with a 2026 horizon increases to 8.203 billion.

One of the actions is the installation of synchronous compensators for the first time on the Peninsula, as well as the incorporation of new units on the islands. These devices provide dynamic voltage control and, given their local nature, are distributed geographically to reinforce it in different areas and complement the equipment already in place in the system for this function. Specifically, eight compensators are distributed throughout the Peninsula; another two in the Canary Islands, in La Palma and Lanzarote—to complement those already planned in Gran Canaria and Tenerife—and the construction of another in Mallorca is being brought forward.

These devices also provide inertia to the system and allow for an increase in available grid capacity for new renewable generation, particularly in non-peninsular systems. The modification includes a flexible alternating current transmission system in Catalonia, close to the interconnections with the rest of Europe, which helps to dampen system oscillations.

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