Andalucía needs 77% more investment in electricity grid to prevent economic development slowdown

The Andalucía region of southern Spain is facing a bottleneck in its current electricity distribution system, which threatens to slow economic growth by limiting its ability to meet both current and future demand from new industrial and business projects.

This is reflected in a recent report prepared by the Junta’s regional ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines. It assesses central government’s proposed national investment in electricity grids for 2025-2030.

The report highlights that 77% of the current and future electricity needs in the region will require more investment. Only 23% of actions requested by Andalusian Regional Government in this energy area have been included into the plans of the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.

According to the Junta, 60% of the investments allocated to Andalucía would only solve the current shortcomings of the electricity system. The planned measures, therefore, do not respond to the specific needs of Andalucía, nor do they serve the industrial development of the region, but merely support the operation of the transport network as a whole.

Of the 8.13 billion euros earmarked for Spain as a whole in the electricity planning until 2030, not including interconnections, the ministry allocates 11.8% to Andalucía, which is below what would correspond to the region according to objective criteria such as population (18%), surface area (17.3%) and electricity consumption (15%).

The Junta report shows that only 458 millions are allocated to new investments and actions. The rest of the money, over 500 million, goes for actions that were already planned. This means that 52% is still in the planning.

The central government only allocated 25 of the 111 projects requested by the Andalusian Government in March 2024.

The most critical project that the central government has left out of the planning is the 400 kV Cordoba-Extremadura axis (Maguilla-Peñarroya-Lancha) – an essential infrastructure for the development of the north of the province of Cordoba and its districts of Valle del Guadiato and Valle de los Pedroches, which have historically been left out of investments in electricity networks.

The report also highlights that only 10% of requests are met in Cordoba and Cadiz provinces.

The national government defended its investment proposal through secretary of state for energy Joan Groizard, who stated that “Andalucía is the big winner of the new proposals, as it is the region where most demand capacity is met, with 5,000 new megawatts, which means that almost 20% of all that is approved at national level goes to Andalucía, being the second region with the most significant investment effort”.

Groizard also highlighted that “investment has increased by almost 90% compared to the 2015-2020 planning, given that Andalucía is the home of renewable projects, which attract industry”.