The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, visited today the headquarters of Redeia, global operator of essential electricity and telecommunications services, and met with its Chairwoman, Beatriz Corredor, and its CEO, Roberto García Merino. During the visit, he was able to learn about the company's role as backbone of Spain's ecological transition and digital transformation.
José Manuel Albares visited the Electricity Control Centre (Cecoel), where he observed how the electricity system operates in real time and how renewable energies are integrated in the system with all due guarantees and security. This work, which Red Eléctrica, a Redeia company, carries out through the Renewable Energies Control Centre (Cecre), has meant that, in the year to date, more than 50% of generation comes from this type of source.
The minister enquired after the challenges Red Eléctrica faces to successfully undertake the ecological transition and, in particular, the projects being carried out at an international level, noteworthy among which are the electricity connections with our neighbouring countries, and particularly, the future interconnection with France through the Bay of Biscay.
This infrastructure – the processing of which is being completed in both countries and for which the engineering, manufacturing and construction contracts have just been awarded – will allow the interconnection capacity with France to be increased from 2,800 MW at present to 5,000 MW, which will enable the achievement of the decarbonisation targets and assist in the fight against climate change, which the energy transition requires.
“This is undoubtedly a key project to enable Spain to cease to be an energy island and move closer towards the interconnection targets set by the European Union”, remarked the Chairwoman of Red Eléctrica, Beatriz Corredor. At present, the Iberian Peninsula has a level of interconnection with the rest of the European electricity system of only 2.8% as regards installed generation capacity, a figure still very far from the target set by the European Union of attaining 15% for each country by 2030.
For his part, Minister Albares underlined the importance of these interconnections, both from an economic and a strategic perspective, and expressed his support for the global operator and its Chairwoman in achieving progress in this field. The Minister for Foreign Affairs stressed that “Spain has placed itself at the forefront of Europe in offering solutions to the serious energy crisis caused by the aggression against Ukraine and Russia's supply cuts, which have subsequently been adopted by the European Commission".
Beatriz Corredor and José Manuel Albares also discussed the activity of the rest of the subsidiaries of Redeia, that is, Reintel, and the technology platform Elewit, with special emphasis on the work that the group develops in Ibero-America through Redinter and Hispasat.