The State plans to increase the capacity of the electrical grid by 50% by 2030

BarcelonaThe Spanish government plans to increase the electricity grid capacity in Catalonia by 50% by 2030. Thus, the grid will add 3,800 megawatts (MW) of additional capacity to the electrical system, which will allow for meeting the growing demand from both private individuals and investments in public infrastructure. This increase is the share that corresponds to Catalonia of the Pedro Sánchez's executive plan to improve the electricity grid across the State, which includes investments worth 17 billion euros in all autonomous communities over the next four years.

"There is a before and an after" to this plan, assured the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, this Thursday. The minister met with the Secretary of State for Energy, Jordi Groizard, to finalize the electricity planning in Catalonia within the state plan: The plan provides for creating new electrical substations—and expanding current ones—that will serve both current and new consumers, but also to ensure the supply for new infrastructure and business projects that will require high levels of energy consumption.

Among these projects is, for example, the construction of a new substation to serve the two health campuses of the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona and the Hospital Josep Trueta in Girona. In fact, Paneque and Groizard spoke to the media from the land that this second campus is to occupy in Salt (Gironès).

Furthermore, Paneque highlighted other projects that will move forward thanks to this expansion of the electricity grid. One of the main ones is the construction of a substation for the artificial intelligence (AI) gigafactory in Móra d'Ebre that the State is promoting in partnership with the Catalan Government and a group of private companies led by Telefónica, ACS, and Banco Santander.

In addition to these, the representatives of the state government and the Generalitat have also agreed to include in the plan the electrical connections for the new desalination plant on the Costa Brava, the Torreblanca-Quatre Pilans industrial estate in Lleida, the hub of the audiovisual sector Catalunya Mediacity in Sant Adrià del Besòs (Barcelonès), and to bring 400 kilovolts (kV) to the port of Barcelona. A new substation named Químico will also be created to increase the capacity of the petrochemical industrial estate in Tarragona and another in the Cardener river basin, in Central Catalonia.

Improving in renewables

"We are preparing the grid so that more energy can reach it and more can also be generated through renewable sources," declared Paneque. In addition, both governments have agreed on what the "major electricity entry points into Catalonia" should be, she said.

Groizard explained that the investments will serve to improve "the very high voltage grid of Red Eléctrica," the public operator of the transport network, as well as to "strengthen the distribution grid that reaches final consumers." With these new investments, the two administrations aim for "Catalonia to be able to advance in renewables and electrical storage" and to "respond to industrial aspirations" and infrastructure that improves public services, the Secretary of State added.

In this sense, the state-owned company Red Eléctrica (REE) will be in charge of the construction of transport infrastructure and substations, while the connections to consumers will be handled by electricity distribution companies, as is customary. Paneque has announced the creation of a "periodic monitoring commission" with distribution companies to track compliance with the schedules. In this regard, Groizard indicated that "the idea is that this new planning can be approved before the end of the year and the projects that are part of it can begin to be implemented."