Spain's grid operator Redeia to invest $7.7 billion through 2029
26/02/2026 11:33
Redeia has been caught in blame game following last April's blackout Says it has not set aside any provisions for payouts Has increased use of more stable baseload power, such as gas By Pietro Lombardi MADRID, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Spain's Redeia REDE.MC, the owner of power grid operator Red Electrica, plans to invest 6.5 billion euros ($7.67 billion) through 2029, it said on Thursday, mostly to expand and upgrade the country's power network. Utilities have blamed Redeia for last April's blackout in Portugal and Spain - Europe's most significant outage in more than two decades - and Redeia, in which the state holds a 20% stake, has blamed them. Redeia's senior management has said the company complied with all procedures and rules. Multiple investigations have followed the power outage, including one by the Spanish government, which concluded both Redeia and power generators had been at fault. Red Electrica manages a transmission grid spanning more than 46,000 km (28,600 miles), while power companies, including Iberdrola and Endesa control and invest in less extensive local distribution grids that take electricity to the final customers. INVESTMENT IS FOCUSED ON SPANISH GRID Redeia said on Thursday it would invest roughly 6 billion euros in Spain's power grid, leaving around 500 million euros for investment in other businesses, such as its international operations in Latin America and its technology and fiber-optic businesses. It said on Thursday it had not set aside provisions for potential claims related to the blackout as it believed it was unlikely to be required to make payments linked to the outage, although the ongoing investigations could change that in future. Following the outage, the power grid operator increased the use of steady sources of generation, such as gas plants. They cost more and are not carbon free, but they can balance the grid more effectively than intermittent renewable energy. As the share of electricity produced by wind and solar declined to 55.5% last year from 56.8% in 2024, the average price of electricity on the Spanish spot market rose by around 9% to 83.45 euros per megawatt-hour, according to Redeia data. Last year, net profit rose about 37% to 505.6 million euros, it said. ($1 = 0.8477 euros) (Reporting by Pietro Lombardi; Editing by David Latona and Barbara Lewis) ((Pietro.Lombardi@thomsonreuters.com;))