Busy week in the offices of large Catalan and Spanish companies. While last week the Catalan perfume company Puig restructured its leadership, this week it was Endesa's turn, which will have a new CEO from April, and Criteria, which has restructured its board. The IEF will also have a new president, this time Catalan, for a period of two years. And the Catalan telecom company Parlem regains Pérez-Mas as CEO amidst disputes with Avatel. These are the most notable hires of the week.

Endesa's current CEO, José Bogas, will step down at the company's annual general meeting on April 28, thus concluding his nearly 12-year tenure as the energy company's top executive. Endesa has published the agenda for the shareholders' meeting with the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), where Bogas is expected to become an external director, but without providing details of who his successor will be. Bogas is thus relinquishing his executive duties at a company where he has spearheaded, for over a decade – across three terms – the transformation of a company marked by the energy transition, the promotion of renewables, and the electrification of the economy. As an external director, Bogas will be able to remain connected to the company, without executive responsibilities, but will be able to facilitate the transition to the new CEO. Although the person to fill the position is still unknown – their appointment will depend on the main shareholder, the Italian electricity company Enel – names have already begun to circulate, such as that of Gianni Vittorio Armani, according to reports. The ConfidentialJosé Bogas is one of the leading executives in the Spanish energy sector, a role he has forged over decades in the industry, with more than forty years at Endesa, thanks to his deep understanding of both the company and the Spanish electricity sector. An industrial engineer from the ICAI School of Engineering, where he graduated in 1978, he joined the electricity company in 1982, when it was still a state-owned enterprise, as head of the market research section in the Planning Department. From there, he climbed the company's organizational ladder, holding virtually every key position, until in 2014, while serving as general manager of the business in Spain and Portugal, he was appointed CEO, succeeding Andrea Brentan, by which time the energy company was under the umbrella of the Italian firm Enel. Last February, during the presentation of the 2025 results, Bogas stated that he felt "strong" enough to continue leading the electricity company, although he emphasized that his future was a matter for "Endesa's board of directors and, ultimately," the general shareholders' meeting. "Life is what it is, and things are as they are. After 45 years at Endesa, it's true that every day that passes brings me closer to retirement. But I will do what's best for the group," he said. The choice to succeed Bogas as CEO rests with the Italian company Enel, Endesa's main shareholder with a 70% stake, which will have to present its proposal at the next shareholders' meeting. Enel will have to choose between a Spanish or Italian candidate, as has been rumored recently, to lead what is considered the "crown jewel" of its subsidiaries.

Endesa will invest a total of €10.6 billion between 2026 and 2028, the company announced on Tuesday, presenting its strategic plan for the next two years. Of that investment, 5.5 billion euros will go to the distribution network (52% of the total), according to the company. This investment plan is the company's largest in the last twelve years (since it began operating solely in the Iberian Peninsula), exceeding the previous strategic plan for 2024-2026, which amounted to €9.6 billion, by 10%. The company has also submitted its 2025 results to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). These results have surpassed the upper end of forecasts for both gross profit (EBITDA) – €5.756 billion, up 9% – and net ordinary profit – which grew by 18% to €2. The company will propose increasing the dividend to be distributed to its shareholders by 20% more than previously planned (€1.30), to €1.58 per share. This figure is also 20% higher than the dividend distributed in the previous year and represents a dividend yield of over 5% for the year.

The responsibility for the massive blackout of April 28th of last year remains unclear, but the major electricity companies have consistently pointed the finger at the Spanish electricity system operator, Red Eléctrica, and they reiterated this point on Thursday. During their appearance before the Senate committee investigating the events, the CEOs of Endesa and Iberdrola, José Bogas and Mario Ruiz-Tagle, respectively, again identified the system operator as solely responsible for the blackout that left the entire Iberian Peninsula without power. "It did not act with sufficient agility in forecasting, scheduling, or correcting the errors," stated Bogas of Endesa. Ruiz-Tagle, the Iberdrola executive, ruled out a "multifactorial" cause for the blackout and pointed to a "single" reason: "A planning error in the elements for controlling the voltage," he said, implicitly referring to Red Eléctrica (REE).

In an increasingly unstable world, the First Vice-President and Commissioner for Competition of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, is clear on the matter: "We are shaken by the feeling that the world order is faltering, and that the use of energy and raw materials and the dependencies between different powers are becoming a geopolitical weapon," she stated in Barcelona, ​​at an event organized by the Foundation for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (Funseam). But she was quick to point the way forward: "We must be aware of the progress we have made. The future is not written, but we must not let ourselves be swayed by the noise and pessimism." For the former Vice-President and Socialist Minister, the capacity for reaction of the different member states is key, especially given the major shock that Europe experienced with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which highlighted the excessive energy dependence and the response of severing the supply chain. While in 2022, 45% of the natural gas consumed by Europe came from Russia, this figure has now fallen to 12%.

Endesa Energía has acknowledged unauthorized access to its sales platform, resulting in the theft of customer data related to their contracts, including identity documents and payment information. A malicious actor bypassed the security measures implemented by the company on its sales platform in a recent security incident, and the company has already begun notifying affected users via email. This incident, described by the company as "unauthorized and illegitimate access," led to the theft of sensitive personal data from customers related to their electricity and gas contracts. According to the company's investigation, the malicious actor "had access and could have exfiltrated" contact information, identity documents, and bank account IBANs. Endesa Energía clarifies that access passwords were not compromised.

More than 90% of the phone numbers used to call potential customers on behalf of Endesa are suspected of fraud. This is according to a search tool launched by the energy company to provide consumers with tools to avoid telephone fraud.

Catalonia has established itself as the leading region in Spain for collective self-consumption, a system that allows several households, businesses, or public facilities to share the energy generated by a single photovoltaic installation. This model, which was virtually unknown just a few years ago, is now a key pillar for advancing towards a fairer, more sustainable, and more participatory energy transition.

The four major energy companies listed on the Ibex 35, Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy, and Repsol, have just presented their results for the first nine months of the year, that is, between January and September. And although themassive power outage of April 28 It has had an impact on their accounts, but in one way or another they have managed to navigate the effects of the blackout that plunged the Iberian Peninsula into darkness, to the point that three of them (Iberdrola, Endesa, and Naturgy) expect to close 2025 with record profits. However, the businesses of the four companies are not the same, although some have more in common, as is the case with Iberdrola and Endesa. Therefore, the underlying reasons for how they have managed to avoid the impact are also different.

Endesa and Naturgy expect to close 2025 with record profits, or at least that's what both companies hinted at this Wednesday, coinciding with the presentation of their results for the first nine months of the year, that is, between January and September. Specifically, both the electricity and gas companies are on track to reach their target of €2 billion this year, thus avoiding the shock of the massive power outage on April 28th that left the Iberian Peninsula in darkness for hours. Endesa earned €1.711 billion between January and September of this year, 22% more than in the same period last year, as the company reported this Wednesday to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). This result almost matches the profit for all of 2024, when it posted a gain of €1.888 billion.

During the 20th century, the construction of hydroelectric power plants transformed the landscape, economy, and life in many areas of the country. Dams not only served to generate electricity: they boosted key infrastructure for the region, guaranteed the water supply to cities, and facilitated irrigation for thousands of hectares. They were engines of development and left a technical and social legacy that is still relevant today.

Enric Brazís Caubet (Palma, 1969), an industrial engineer with a specialization in ESADE, is the director of Endesa in Catalonia, the region's leading electricity company in both generation and distribution and marketing. The distribution network, specifically, is in the spotlight, both due to the massive blackout on April 28th and user complaints about access.

Black feathers with greenish and purple tinges. The head is bare and reddish. The beak, which is very elongated and slightly curved, is also reddish. The hermit ibis is a bird with a very distinctive appearance, but it is not easy to observe. In fact, it completely disappeared from Catalonia and the rest of the Mediterranean territories more than 300 years ago. However, in 1990, numerous recovery plans were launched to reintroduce it to Europe; today, it is estimated that there are 2,000 specimens.

Endesa earned €1.041 billion between January and June of this year, 30.1% more than the same period last year, according to a report to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) on Tuesday. Although the first half of the year was marked by the massive power outage on April 28, the utility defines the result as "excellent" and links it to the good performance of its liberalized electricity generation and marketing business, but also to the disappearance of the extraordinary tax of the Spanish government, which has affected the accounts of the largest energy companies in the country over the last two years.

Endesa has resolved the problem of blackouts and power outages for customers in the city of Barcelona. The company announced at 1:00 p.m. that "the three medium-voltage outages associated with last night's incidents have been resolved." One of them was resolved with a generator in the area between General Mitre and Muntaner and the repair of the damaged distribution center.

Endesa and Iberdrola have made moves to extend the useful life of nuclear power plants, including the Almaraz I plant in Cáceres, which is the first to be shut down, in November 2027. For now, however, the attempt has been derailed. Both companies have submitted a proposal to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, which the Ministry has rejected—according to sources from this ministry who spoke to ARA—because it "does not meet the red lines" that Pedro Sánchez's administration has put on the table for assessing the extension of the useful life of this technology. Specifically, the Spanish government's three red lines are: ensuring safety for people and security of supply, and ensuring that the decision does not entail additional costs for citizens.

The Spanish and Portuguese governments, the National Court, the European Commission, the Competition Authority and the European network of electric transport managers They have already launched investigations to clarify what happened on Monday, when the entire Iberian Peninsula suddenly lost power. For now, everyone agrees that time will be needed to gather data, analyze the events, and understand why the Spanish electricity system went down so massively and unexpectedly. The blackout has once again brought the ideological debate between nuclear and renewable energy to the forefront, but—beyond lobbying interests and political discourse—there are technical reasons that point to the possible causes of such a collapse.

The general blackout Monday, which left millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula without electricity or mobile phone coverage for hours, was an absolutely historic and exceptional day. However, not for everyone, as in several rural areas of Catalonia, far from large cities, some residents are accustomed to dealing with prolonged power outages on a more or less regular basis. These are small mountain or coastal villages, isolated rural farmhouses, or residential areas far from the city center that occasionally lose power due to an incident in the grid. They represent a small percentage of the population who, despite paying the same as the rest for services, have long since grown accustomed to living with generators, wood fires, lanterns, and gas stoves in their back pocket.

This Monday's historic blackout suddenly disrupted the routines of citizens and businesses, also causing millions in losses. For individuals, home insurance offers some useful coverage to address damage caused by this type of malfunction. One of the most important is protection against electrical damage caused by a power outage, a coverage that includes food and medicine stored in refrigerators. Unlike the DANA (National Insurance Plan), the Insurance Compensation Consortium—which replaces insurance companies—does not come into play in this case, as it would only be activated if the blackout was the result of an atmospheric phenomenon, a matter that has not yet been confirmed. An essential element is knowing the cause of the blackout, which helps determine who to claim against, explain Endesa sources.

The electricity supply has suffered a general outage affecting at least the entire Iberian Peninsula. The outage affects electricity, but also mobile and landline telephone services. The blackout occurred at 12:40 p.m. this Monday, and problems have been reported from the outset in Catalonia, the rest of Spain, and also in Portugal. In fact, several witnesses told ARA that the outage also affects towns such as Viseu, Guarda, and Porto.