The government acted swiftly to pause expansion work on electrical networks, aiming to prevent saturation in zones hosting major industrial projects such as electric car battery gigafactories and data centers. The pause also supports the smooth integration of new renewable installations amid a rapidly growing sector, with anticipated investments in new infrastructure and reforms to existing networks projected to exceed 900 million euros, funded in part by European sources.
The Ministry for Ecological Transition, chaired by Vice President Teresa Ribera, has spent months assessing the Electricity Planning through 2026. A major update envisions a modernization of high voltage networks with an estimated investment near 7,000 million euros. Though the plan received approval last year, authorities decided it should be expanded to include strategic actions that cannot be postponed.
In coordination with the national electricity system, the government is guiding changes to the high voltage infrastructure manager as it outlines final details. These include new basic infrastructures tailored to the plan’s specific needs and the consolidation of renewable energy sources with large industrial consumers in certain regions. The updates also align with the National Integrated Plan for Energy and Climate (PNIEC), Spain’s green roadmap to 2030, a draft revision recently submitted for Brussels’ review.
with delay
The electricity networks plan update is imminent. Official sources indicate that the administrator will soon present the new action program for public consultation in multiple phases, with a gradual rollout through 2026 to better calibrate investments. The planning review has fallen behind schedule and was originally slated for the first half of this year.
Political stalemate following the 23J elections and the lengthy formation period for Pedro Sánchez’s new government delayed the necessary reform. There is an urgent need to incorporate new studies and expand the networks. The sector has long warned that existing grids and connection points cannot handle the influx of new renewable plants, risking slower investment and the spread of green energy facilities.
Measures tied to ecological transition, which cannot be postponed, will be incorporated into the current grid planning. There was discussion about postponing the roadmap update until after a new government is formed, but the decision favored timely inclusion of critical studies and capacity expansions.
Updating the 2021-2026 Electricity Planning, which the managing entity is advancing, remains a first step. The ecological transition ministry aims to initiate the short-term approval process for a completely new planning framework for 2024-2029, focused on modernizing the transport network. The ministry notes a surge of requests from sector players to replace and extend the power grid. The government must sift through proposals and decide which are essential for the revised plan and which can wait for the next cycle.
European funds to prevent electricity bill from rising
The current plan runs through 2026 and calls for investments around 7 billion euros to implement scheduled actions. Some of these investments should be borne by Red Eléctrica de España (REE), the operator of the high voltage grid, as part of regulated costs that appear in consumers’ tolls on electricity bills.
Nevertheless, the government aims to shield consumers from additional charges tied to plan changes. Plans from the Ministry for Ecological Transition include covering a portion of new network costs with European funds, ensuring electricity prices do not rise. An addendum to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) pledged by the European Commission in October allocates 931 million euros for expanding electricity networks. This funding will be injected directly into REE to support the planned investments.
REE’s network investments have an annual cap designed to curb rapid increases in electricity bills. Investments exceeding 0.065 percent of GDP, roughly 800 million euros per year, cannot be made beyond that level. The government intends to count new investments included in the 2026 planning reform as not being part of this annual limit. This approach helps avoid delaying other previously scheduled work. In practice, European funds and the portion of newly added infrastructure not covered by these funds will not count toward the cap.