If I don’t know drives electricity demand —of renewable origin— and a greater investment in networks to take it from the point of production to the point of consumption, the “massive” boost to green electricity generation that contemplates the Government energy strategy “it won’t be of any use.” This is the message that the renewable sector sent this Wednesday to the new third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesenupon arrival athe “equator” of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), which foresees “ambitious” objectives for the decarbonization of the economy by replacing fossil fuels with green energy. Companies in this sector believe that fulfills the “leg” of generation, but not two others that they consider equally necessary, that there be someone who consumes that energy and adequate network infrastructures to deliver it to them.
The message has been unanimous in the first stages of the VIII National Congress of Renewable Energies organized in Madrid by APPA Renewablesthe largest association in a sector that is expected to invest a good part of the 308,000 million euros, 82% from private hands, which the Government estimates will need to be invested in the ecological transition between now and 2030.
“We must correct the imbalances generated by supply. We do not have a national electrification plan. Investment in networks has not yet been unlocked“, has opened the president of APPA Renovables, Santiago Gomez. “Need more electrical networks to absorb new demands”, he added about a situation in which the sector is “concerned” about the number of hours with the electricity price at zero euros or negative because there is more supply than demand since there are no plans to electrify more difficult sectors such as transportation or industry or to promote renewable energies such as electricity. biogas or biomethane.
Lots of green electricity, little demand
After the arrival of Aagesen, until now Secretary of State for Energy, at the top of the Ministry and at the gates of 2025, which will mark half of the execution of the PNIEC, the renewable companies have sent his “recipes” to the new vice president third to comply with an energy strategy that foresees that in 2030, 81% of the electricity consumed in Spain will be of renewable origin, a percentage that starts from 54% that will close 2024after last year it became the first EU country to exceed 50% renewable generation within its energy mix. However, it also provides for a 34% electrification of what the director of Acciona Energía Jose Entrecanales has been described as “hypothetical demand”, more “aspirational” than real because it represents an annual increase of 0.7% and, he said, “it seems difficult to think that we are going to meet those objectives.”
“If the demand hypotheses are not met, the hypotheses of the supply growth objectives – such as doubling photovoltaic or wind power that the Government foresees – will lead to dysfunctions“Entrecanales has warned in a first roundtable discussion on whether the sector is prepared to comply with the PNIEC. The answer, in the words of the president of APPA Renovables, is that “companies are prepared”, but government action is needed to address “dysfunctions” such as “negative prices” that “are not healthy” for investors, Entrecanales has warned.
While, on the part of the Ministry, the new general director of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), Miguel Rodrigobelieves that “we are in a especially motivating moment” for the energy transition, renewable companies have made it clear that they rather contemplate the “challenges” that the Ministry has to face so that the promotion of renewable electricity generation – well established in the PNIEC – is added to the increase in electricity demand and adequate electricity gridsspecifically, without the investment cap that was introduced more than a decade ago when the green revolution had not begun and that the Ecological Transition studies making more flexible but without having made a decision yet.
Within the request to increase demand, the sector focuses on looking at the 50% of which it is difficult to be served with electricity – renewable – and that will need other types of green energy that until now have deserved little attention from of Ecological Transition, such as biogas or biomethane. Also the green hydrogen who, however, see that they still lack time. “We do not see it as a technology that will take off in this decade, possibly in the next,” he noted. Loreto OrdóñezCEO of Engie, for which it is essential to “work on demand, work in networks and work on capacity mechanisms.”
According to Edison Next’s CEP, Inigo Bertrandthe public sector has managed to increase the demand for renewable electricity and also the private tertiary sector, such as hospitals, hotels or shopping centers in which “electrification is a reality today.” The same does not happen with the industrial sector, for which it has requested public support so that it can decarbonize its thermal demand, the most difficult to separate from gas or oil.
“If there is no demand that matches the generation, I don’t know if it makes much sense to talk about more generation.“, pointed out the business development director of TotalEnergies Spain, Alvaro Ramos, that “without forgetting generation”, it is “important to make a national electrification plan and that it be carried out urgently.” “Invest in electrical infrastructure, because, if not, There is no point in having demand if there is nowhere to put it.“, he said in relation to electrical networks and also to the development of storage and the fulfillment of the objectives and its expansion of interconnections with France and Portugal, which will also contribute to meeting the Government’s electricity demand objective for 2030.
Investment stumbled in networks
To measure the largest investment that the electricity companies demand that the Government be able to make in electrical networks – and that would have an impact on the bill, which until a few months ago held back Teresa Ribera-, Entrecanales has indicated that to comply with the PNIEC an investment of 14,000 million is needed and that the “real figure for 2023” is 6,000 and this year it is “limited to 3,000 million per year.” ·”We are underinvesting in networks in a worrying way“, he stated.
For Ramos, what it is about is “being able, if not to meet the objectives of the PNIEC, to be close. More than complying, one of the concerns is that investments should not go to other interesting markets”.