Spain and Portugal demand from Brussels a “firm political and financial commitment” for greater electrical interconnection with Europe | Economy
The governments of Spain and Portugal, in a joint brief, have claimed on Wednesday to the European Commission a « firm political and financial commitment » so that the electrical system of the Iberian Peninsula can be more interconnected with the rest of the continent through France. The neighboring country It has been blocking the increase in this infrastructure for years. In fact, in the letter, to which the country has had access, Spain and Portugal will ask for a four -band meeting – in which in addition to Madrid and Lisbon Brussels and Paris participate – so that the Elysium gives their arm to twist.
Although both countries have been with this claim for more than a decade, the mass blackout of April 28 has fueled the urgency. « The event strongly affected the entire Iberian Peninsula and showed the importance of interconnectivity within the European electrical system in critical situations, » says the writing. « We consider that it is essential to reiterate – now with greater urgency – the imperative of acting decisively. »
The letter addressed to the European Energy Commissioner, the Danish Dan Jørgensenis signed by the third vice president of the Spanish Executive and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesenand the Portuguese Minister of Environment and Energy, MARIA DA GRAKE CARVALHO. This common front was agreed on Monday to press the Commission and France so that Electric interconnection with the rest of the continent is increased. The alliance, advanced by the countryhas materialized in this letter and in another, in the same sense, that will be sent to the French Minister of Energy, Marc Ferracci.
Both ministers regret that “despite the advances of recent years, the Iberian Peninsula It is still an energy island« , So they claim that the increase in transmission capacity » must appear among the maximum priorities, not only for Spain and Portugal, but for the European Union as a whole. «
SUPPLY AND PRICE SECURITY
That the number of Pyrenean cables increases would not only benefit the security of the supply of Spain and Portugal, but also to the rest of the EU because, by allowing “the full exploitation of the renewable potential in southwest Europe”, the invoice for millions of consumers north of the Pyrenees would automatically reduce.
« Completing electrical interconnections for the Iberian Peninsula is no longer an option: it is a shared responsibility for the energy future of Europe, » they underline Aagesen and Graça Carvalho, which appeal to extend the « single market, also in the energy sector. » The will of both is clear: that the matter goes from being of a battle between the Iberian countries and France to become a European issue.
Apart from the causes that caused the abrupt fall of the supply, the energy holders of the Spanish and Portuguese executives have insisted on a claim that is on its way to becoming historical: the increase in that Pyrenean electrical interconnection, the only one that links with the rest of the EU, which continues far from the community objectives and whose expansion France has been blocked for years. The Portuguese minister meets this Wednesday in Brussels with the European commissioner and will deliver the letter in hand, as He advanced this newspaper.
The Portuguese Minister reproached France, in A recent interviewthat will not speed up the interconnections « because it has a lot of nuclear. » This energy source is remarkably more expensive than wind and the Iberian photovoltaic, so the competitiveness of the French nuclear powerful (in the hands of a public company, the renationalized EDF, holder of the second largest reactor park on the planet) It could be directly affected by the progress of renewables from the south. This is what Paris wants to avoid at all costs, although that implies depriving their companies and families of clean and cheap energy in their day to day.
« We are facing barriers to the domestic market, which is the pillar of European construction, and France, not supporting the speed with which we intended to build these interconnections, it is placing barriers to the domestic market, » He complained, just over a week ago, the Portuguese Energy Holder.
Along the same lines, Aagesen said In another interview that after the zero electric traumatic of April 28 —Inédito until then in Spain and one of the greatest in the history of the old continent— He had come « the time for France to be aware that interconnections have to arrive yes or yes. » « Europe must give certainty that this interconnection will continue to move forward, » said the Spanish vice president.
Pyrenean interconnection between the Peninsula and the rest of Europe currently has a capacity of 2.8% of the power generation power installed in the system, the metric that is used in this type of critical infrastructure. The European Commission requires Member States an electrical interconnection with their neighbors of at least 10% since 2020 and 15% from 2030.
When the expansion is ready in the Vizcaya Gulf – in 2028, with the current calendar in the hand, quite later than initially planned– It will rise to around 5%. Even then, the sum of the cables that link the Peninsula and France will remain far from the community objective.
Reduce spills
A greater interconnection is not only fundamental from the economic point of view – to help reduce price peaks in both markets – and ecological – to reduce green electricity spills when the generation is greater than demand – but also in supply security key. Although no one dares to categorically affirm that the blackout would not have occurred with more interconnections, the specialists agree that, with a greater transmission capacity, that risk would have been mitigated.
Although the historical direction of electrical exchanges between Spain and France – whose first cable was inaugurated more than four decades ago, with a subsequent expansion in 2015 – has been in the north sense, with the entrance of large sums of nuclear electricity gala in the Peninsula, the shifts have changed in recent years. In 2022, in full energy crisis, A corrosion problem in the pipes forced half of the Gauling reactors, and Spain and Portugal They were fundamental to ensure the supply of electricity in the second largest economy of the twenty -seven. Without that extra contribution, Paris would have had it much more difficult.
