The Executive has greenlit an urgent plan to reinforce the electricity grid, enabling Red Eléctrica and major energy companies to execute additional investments worth 17.9 billion euros by 2030. This measure aims to combat grid collapse, which currently limits the connection of new industrial, technological, and housing projects, and hinders the economy's electrification.
The new regulation eliminates the legal limits that previously restricted annual investment in transport (0.065% of GDP) and distribution (0.13% of GDP) grids. The Government acknowledges that these caps were insufficient to meet the needs of the energy transition and the volume of access requests. With this reform, total investment in electricity grids could exceed 35 billion euros by the end of the decade.
Additional investments will be progressively distributed until 2030. For distribution grids, up to 10.2 billion euros in extra investment will be possible, while for REE's transport grids, up to 7.7 billion euros are contemplated, pending final Electrical Planning. Paradoxically, these increased investments, financed by the electricity system itself, are expected to contribute to a reduction in electricity bills due to their multiplier effect on the economy and the distribution of costs among a broader user base.
Extra investments in distribution must be allocated to facilitate new industrial, residential, and transport decarbonization demands, as well as improvements in voltage control, observability, cybersecurity, anticipatory investments, adaptation to avifauna regulations, and climate resilience. The decree also encourages grid operators to acquire existing private lines.
Concurrently, the Government has launched an urgent grid reinforcement plan costing 615 million euros. This initiative, the third in two years, aims to increase system resilience, reduce consumer costs, and better manage electricity transmission from the south to the north of Spain, especially with the rise of solar plants. The modification includes 51 actions, such as the incorporation of electronic compensators and reactors, raising the total investment for the planning horizon of 2026 to 8.818 billion euros.
