big electric They were demanding legal regulations from the government. billion-dollar investments in electricity networks, Its modernization and expansion is vital to integrate the boom in new renewable energies. The government has been resisting increasing the fees that companies receive for these investments and reflected in the electricity bill to prevent further increases, but it is now not ruling out slight increases as long as their impact on customers through the electricity bill is limited. .
In recent discussions, the Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, signaled a willingness to slightly raise the cap on investments for the electrical transport and distribution networks. The move aims to accelerate deployment and digitalization of the grid, especially as large groups such as Bedrola, Endesa, and Naturgy take a prominent role in expanding and modernizing the network infrastructure in response to a surge of new renewable energy plants. The statement came during a formal address at a business forum where executives from Endesa, Naturgy, and Red Eléctrica participated, highlighting a careful balance between investment growth and consumer cost containment.
Ribera cautioned that investors should not expect a windfall in wages or returns from network investments. The administration indicated openness to revisiting the next evaluation, which is currently scheduled for 2026, with the aim of ensuring the framework remains aligned with market realities and consumer affordability. Nevertheless, officials did not close the door on improving the fee structure, provided such changes do not significantly impact household and business electricity costs.
During discussions with press representatives, the vice president acknowledged the pressure from network owners to secure higher fees. Yet she underscored that any increase must be carefully calibrated to keep the portion of the electricity bill attributed to these fees as low as possible while still enabling network expansion. The objective remains to strike a balance between expanding capacity to meet growing demand and protecting consumers from abrupt price spikes. The government stressed that current legislation sets an investment cap tied to GDP and CPI trends, with a potential for a modest increase to support critical upgrades.
The transport and distribution networks sector operates under a regulated model, where utilities invest in infrastructure subject to statutory limits and recover costs through access charges on the electricity bill. Under the current framework, Red Eléctrica de España faces a maximum investment limit of 0.65% of GDP (excluding international interconnection costs), while distributors are capped at 0.13% of GDP. Companies, especially the larger electricity groups, are pressing for higher limits to speed up modernization and the deployment of smart grid technologies while seeking greater remuneration for their investments.
Officials repeated the message: the more compensation sought by network owners, the greater the risk of passing costs to consumers. The focus, they added, is to maintain a tariff balance that minimizes the impact on the bill while enabling the energy transition. Spain is actively pursuing opportunities to build new networks over the next five to seven years, expanding renewable energy and making targeted investments to optimize energy use, storage, and distribution.
In recent years, the government has mobilized European funds to upgrade electricity networks without adding those expenditures to the statutory investment limits or shifting the burden to consumers through higher bills. The administration allocated substantial resources from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to support network expansion and planning for high-voltage infrastructure, along with dedicated funding to digitalize the grid. These steps underpin a broader strategy to accelerate the energy transition while safeguarding household budgets and industrial competitiveness. [Source: Government of Spain].