The open debate surrounding the installation of the new power line in the eastern islands is becoming a magnificent opportunity to begin questioning many principles that seemed untouchable and rethink alternatives.
First, we have the follow-up to this week's parliamentary agreement: How long will it take the Ministry of Industry to comply with the unanimous mandate and withdraw the appeal against the order that paralyzes the power line in Fuerteventura?
Far from presenting a new problem, the Parliament's agreement and the TSJC's order are an opportune solution for the Ministry of Industry to correct inherited errors and abide by the democratic will.
Now the Ministry has in its hands the judicial and political tools to lead a rethinking of many measures that have been taken.
It is important to emphasize the need to work with a more global vision to manage solutions in a local key. Because as the social debate has spread, providing more opinions and offering new alternatives, the initial question about whether or not to bury the new power line has also been nuanced.
Of course, we all agree that burying should be prioritized, trying not to occupy more land and following the same route as the infrastructure axes that are already created. This was not understood by the Ministry of Industry, the homologous Ministry, or Red Eléctrica itself, despite the fact that all the planning plans of the majorera and conejera institutions have included it for decades. It was this firm position of town councils and island councils that now supports the legal arguments.
But we are already in the second scenario. It is time to go further. Is the new 132KV line really necessary?
The doubt arises from the technical opinions that indicate that with the current 66KV line, conveniently modernized and even adapted to install a double circuit, the supply would be guaranteed.
That is one of the urgent answers that should focus the work of the Ministry, after ordering the withdrawal of the appeal.
Because if the 66Kv line in double circuit is sufficient, the debate of the 132 Kv line, the new route, and the large towers fall under their own weight.
Third, we have the approach of the Island Plan of Ordination of Fuerteventura that the Cabildo has been processing for years with a second point of electrical generation in the south of Fuerteventura. One more argument to ensure the stability of the supply during the next decades and, therefore, make unnecessary the new 132 Kv line and, consequently, the inter-island connection that has also been announced to us.
Would the consideration "of general interest" be justified for the 132Kv route with both arguments? Certainly not.
Attending to the justifying campaign developed from the electrical environment, it is also necessary to discuss the consequences that the paralysis of the 132Kv line would have on the wind farms in process.
First of all, it must be clarified that all the projects that we have been able to consult are designed and processed according to the current 66Kv line. Yes, some of them are also designed so that in the future they could connect to the 132Kv network, if it is installed.
The Ministry then argues that the danger lies in the fact that the paralysis of the 132 Kv line could also delay the start-up of the wind farms and with it that some of the companies that promote them cannot benefit from the Modification of Law 24/2013, of December 26, of the Electricity Sector, which authorizes the Government to grant specific remuneration regimes for the facilities that come into operation before December 31, 2018.
Good. One trusts in the effectiveness of the management of the Ministry, which since September 2016 addressed the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism to extend beyond December 2018 the maximum period that the wind farms registered have to start up the facilities.
That would be another of the keys to urgent work. First withdraw the appeal to respond to social and institutional demand. And second, specify with the Ministry the extension beyond 2018 so that companies do not see their potential benefits cut...
And for that it is convenient to keep in mind that the Ministry of Industry has already prepared an Order, which is currently in consultation in the National Securities Market Commission, raising the electrical scenario until the year 2022 with the increase even of the current specific remuneration for renewable energies in around 5% in the case of the parks installed in the islands (and 3% for the Peninsula).
That is, after the soriano brake to renewables, the Ministry is now beginning to recover lost ground: not only does it rule out eliminating the benefits, but it will increase them by 5%.
And all this, even recognizing that we repeat the error of talking again about the benefits of companies. When what we should be focused on is designing tools to expand public participation in the energy sector, the promotion of neighborhood cooperativism in clean energy systems, in the creation of small, more stable energy circuits, less dependent on large consortiums and socially more just.
But that, now with the withdrawal of the appeal of the Ministry and the rethinking of the 132 Kv line, we will be in a position to be able to specify it.
Mario Cabrera González, CC Deputy for Fuerteventura
