Singular features of the system

Compared to the peninsula system, the Canary Islands electricity system is broken down in six small-sized and electrically isolated subsystems. Interconnection between them is currently impossible due to the big sea depths that prevent laying down submarine cables, save that between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura Islands.

The synergies offered by electricity interconnections that provide for larger system stability cannot be used to advantage here due to the mentioned condition. The generation cost is, besides, larger due to such isolation, since the joint optimizing of the system, to ensure service quality, is not feasible.

Furthermore, the PECAN (Canary Islands Energy Plan) marks out an way for renewable energy sources - highly intermittent and difficult to forecast - to become integrated in these systems. As there is no known referent for this, it involves an additional challenge when seeking a necessary balance between generating and consumption.

Control centres

Red Eléctrica has two control centres: one in Grand Canary Island and the other one in Tenerife. Each centre operates as a single virtual centre that works jointly with the dispatching of the Canary Islands generation and distribution utilities. These centres are responsible for the daily operations scheduling, economical generation dispatching and study of the works required by the transmission grid.

Method for generation scheduling

One of the main differences between the peninsula electricity system and the Canary Islands one is, in fact, the method for generation scheduling due to the Canary Islands system isolation and size.

As stated by the Royal Decree 1747/2003 of 19th December that regulates the Islands and off-the-peninsula electricity systems, the Canary Islands system, due to its isolation and size, demands a different approach than the Peninsula one. For this reason, while a free supply and demand market made up by several generation utilities operates in the peninsula, an effective method to assign generation aimed to minimise the variable costs of scheduled units has been established in the Canary Islands.

For generation assignment, a computer-based tool known as SOLE has been developed by Red Eléctrica for the Canary Islands. This software performs functions similar to those that SIOS (Information System for the System Operator) provides in the peninsula. The technical parameters of units and their variable costs are taken into account by this software. This application sets for each hour the generation units to be operated and power to be supplied.

A financial merit order serves as the starting point and takes two aspects into account: The total electricity system demand must be met and at the lowest possible cost. The found approach must go through a technical restrictions survey which, besides the two mentioned variables, takes into account how the generation units generated electricity is distributed throughout the electricity system.

The found solution to the technical restrictions shows the technical approach to meet the electricity supply requirements based on the cost, effectiveness, safety and quality conditions.

Basic Activities

Red Eléctrica performs the following activities within the Canary Islands power system model:

It receives from producers the information necessary in order to carry out the generating programme (availability of sets, fuel reserves, etc), as well as demand forecasts from distributors, marketers and consumers.

As far as the Canaries are concerned, demand peaks or records are usually linked to the time of the year with the biggest tourist influx, namely October, November and December.
With this information, and its own demand forecasts:
- it draws up a more economical hourly functioning programme for the power generating sets in order to meet the energy demand on the basis of production costs,
- it analyses and deals with the technical viability of this programme taking into account the existing infrastructures for the transmission of electric power from the production centres to the areas of consumption.
It then publishes the amount of energy to be produced by each generating company, as well as the generating costs, so that financial settlements can be performed.
It addition, it plans the development of the transmission grid, handles access to it and ensures that the generating/transmission system is handled correctly in real time.