Government Unblocks 17.9 Billion Euros to Strengthen the Power Grid Through 2030

Spain's Council of Ministers approved a royal decree in late July authorizing power companies to invest an additional 17.9 billion euros through 2030 to reinforce the transmission and distribution networks, aiming to speed up the electrification of the economy and make it easier to connect new homes, industry and transport charging points.

The figure is split into two blocks. Distribution networks will receive 10.2 billion euros, broken down into 1.02 billion in 2027, 2.55 billion in 2028, 3.06 billion in 2029 and 3.57 billion in 2030. Transmission networks, mainly the responsibility of Red Electrica, will get a further 7.7 billion, with 700 million in 2027, 1.85 billion in 2028, 2.3 billion in 2029 and 2.85 billion in 2030.

The decree itself acknowledges that the investment limits in place until now, set at 0.065 percent of GDP for transmission and 0.13 percent for distribution, had become insufficient to handle the flood of grid access requests from industrial, residential and transport electrification projects.

Of the money earmarked for distribution, 20 percent will be reserved for grid monitoring and cybersecurity, another 20 percent for anticipatory investment in areas where demand is not yet guaranteed within a five year horizon, 10 percent for compliance with bird protection rules, and a further 10 percent to strengthen the climate resilience of facilities.

Combined with investment already committed, the total figure directed at Spain's power grids could exceed 35 billion euros by 2030, at a time when power companies had spent months warning of grid saturation holding back major industrial projects, from data centers to electric vehicle charging points, due to a lack of connection capacity.