BarcelonaIn the face of the general shutdown of April 28 and after the various reports that have been derived to find out what the energy zero caused, the Spanish government on Tuesday approved a Royal Decree Law of Measures to strengthen the electrical system, which includes inspections to the operators forced to control the voltage of the network as well as help to consumers. The Third Vice President and Minister of Energy Transition, Sara Aagensen, explained that the purpose of these initiatives is to achieve a “more robust and solvent” system with great benefits, such as more stable and predictable invoices for citizens.
The executive has also given green light to 931 million euros, from European funds, for investments in the transport network for strategic decarbonization projects, which “saves costs for citizens,” said Aagesen. The rule enhances the supervision functions of the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC), which will have six months to evaluate the tension control obligations of the electrical system agents required to provide the service, and to prepare the corresponding report, which will update each quarter.
At the same time, it is also responsible for the system operator, Red Eléctrica, which prepares proposals for regulatory modifications on the responses against power oscillations, and on the speed of tensions variation, the programming of technical restrictions and other technical elements. In addition, a new operation procedure is entrusted to coordinate the development plans of the transport network and the distribution network and a proposal of minimum requirements for monitoring for incident analysis.
The liability of the off
Minister Aagesen also stated, after the major energy on Monday stated Red Eléctrica as “solely responsible” for the turn of April 28, that the responsibilities of the episode “will have to be defined by both administrative and judicial courts”, in the various open procedures.
At the same time, the minister said that in 49 days the Spanish government has managed to have a report from the Research Committee that he has identified “clearly the causes with rigor, analyzing the information of each of the operators”. He also added that Royal Decree Law approved on Tuesday has a package of measures to act and avoid such an event, which is “very important,” he says. “Other processes, such as the instructions, both administrative and judicial, will follow their course. These are those that will resolve responsibilities,” he said, adding that “what comes out of these procedures will already be seen.”
In addition, Aagesen defended the report prepared by the Research Committee and responded to the Iberdrola request to discourage it, which, at the time, were already made “up to two applications to the agents to request transparency and that this information could be made public for all citizens”.
“The result is an anonymous report. There was only one agent who clearly said that the information he had sent to us, 100% of his property, could be made public, which was Red Eléctrica,” said the minister. “Therefore, this report is the result of this anonymization of each of the operators that did not allow us to transparent this information,” he said.
