Yesterday it took place the XVI General Assembly of Futured. After the welcome of Monica Puente, President of Futured, the opening was given by Joan Groizard, Director of IDAE, who stressed that the energy transition is advancing rapidly due to the climate crisis and our country has a clear leadership in this subject, which leads to increased appetite for investment in this area. Groizard also commented that “grid capacity is fundamental for the energy transition and in that sense, PNIEC allocates 18% of its investment to boost them”.
As a final conclusion, Groizard pointed out that the electricity market has to grow because of the necessary drop in fossil fuel consumption and it is imperative to push forward in the electrification.
The first Panel “The vision of the electricity companies”, was moderated by the journalist Ramón Roca who, to open the debate, asked the panelists for their views on the draft of the new PNIEC. In general, the panelists emphasized that it is very good news to have a PNIEC, which ‘despite aspects more or less adjusted to the times, brings an ambitious path that marks the objectives we want to achieve’, commented Concha Sanchez, General Director of Operations at REE. This path is very challenging and implies a total coordination of the actors that are part of it. In this context, it is a priority to “define what network we need -which is a lot- and in what way, in a shared and regulated business scenario, it is essential”, added Sánchez.
José Manuel Revuelta. General Manager of Infrastructures and Networks at Endesa, stated that “we must be clear about what we do and what we can do to compete with other international subjects. We must strengthen issues such as distribution and establish a framework that allows us to develop this activity”.
Eva Mancera, CEO of Iberdrola, emphasized that ‘it is necessary to give visibility to how we face the problems of grids and we all have to work so that there is social acceptance for their installation, because it is fundamental to make visible the urgency of investment in them to make the energy transition possible”.
Xosé López Seoane, President of APYDE stated that “grids are essential, and in this sense, low voltage grids in the rural sector will have an enormous impact. The PNIEC has to address in greater depth those aspects that can be improved because, usually, there are projects that require more years to be implemented.”
The panellists agreed that regulation need to be aligned with energy policy, and the role of the regulator should encourage investment in grids, and not to act as a brake for the energy transition.
The second panel focused on the new energy scenario and we highlight the intervention of Cristina Corchero, CEO of Bamboo Energy. Cristina commented that “if we evaluate the two potentials (i) the market and (ii) how open it is to exploit it, we see that in the first one we are at the top, and in the second one, at the bottom. Spain is very close to the highest ranking in terms of flexibility potential, one of the highest in Europe, but at the regulatory level, it has restrictions that limit us with respect to neighbouring countries”.
As an example, Corchero quoted that national regulation allows demand aggregation to be carried out through electricity retailers, which can participate in the system with demand aggregation. On the other hand, in other European countries, the independent aggregator does have regulation, so that it can market with demand flexibility. In Spain, progress is currently being made -public consultations, operating procedures-, but the truth is that there are many technical limitations that limit participation in the flexibility system, characteristics that limit the acceleration of flexibility from being as fast as in other surrounding countries.
From the technological point of view, Cristina pointed out that “demand is already consuming, and adapting demand may seem very difficult in theory, but there are many cases of active demand management with small investment and semi-immediate savings”.
To conclude the day, the third round table focused on the connection between academia and industry, highlighting the need for trained professionals in all sectors related to the energy transition.
After the panel discussions it took place the election of the new members of the Grupo Rector, and olivoENERGY was elected to continue one more term.
A very interesting day where we had as well the opportunity to meet with some of the ENTRA Agregación y Flexibilidad associates.
