Balearic Islands’ electricity system

Balearic Islands’ electricity system

Royal Decree 738/2015, of 31 July, regulates the electricity production activity and the dispatch procedure in non-peninsular electricity systems.

CECOEL Baleares

Since the publication of Law 17/2007, of 4 July, Red Eléctrica also has the responsibility of planning, developing, and maintaining the transmission grid in the insular and extra-peninsular systems.

The presence of Red Eléctrica in the Balearic Islands, in addition to being a guarantee of transparency and neutrality in the operation of the Balearic Islands' electricity sector, makes the inclusion of other generators and traders possible, thus forming a Balearic Islands' electricity system that is more competitive and efficient.

Main functions

Red Eléctrica carries out its activities from its main office in Palma de Mallorca. Said activities are focused on transmission grid planning, management of access requests to the transmission grid submitted by generators and distributors, drawing up maintenance plans for generation and transmission facilities, the carrying out of economic dispatch of the generation units, and organisation of the power measurement system. Similarly it has available a Control Centre for real-time supervision of the Balearic Islands’ electricity system.

The control centre is responsible for carrying out the monitoring of the electricity system in coordination with the control centres of the generation and distribution companies on the Balearic Islands. Specifically, it has to carry out, amongst other things, the real-time monitoring of the electricity system, demand coverage scheduling activities, real-time management of generation-demand deviations, as well as the monitoring and study of works carried out on the insular transmission grid.

Electricity systems of Ceuta and Melilla

Red Eléctrica carries out its functions for electricity systems of Ceuta and Melilla from the Balearic Electricity Control Centre (Cecoib) in a coordinated manner with the control centres of the generation and distribution companies present in both systems. In particular, it is responsible for carrying out, among other tasks, the monitoring the electricity system in real-time, the scheduling of the demand coverage by carrying out of the economic dispatch of the generation units and the real-time management of generation-demand deviations.

The electricity systems of Ceuta and Melilla are two small-sized isolated systems and that do not have a transmission grid. These singular features greatly influence the stability and service quality indexes. For this reason, the current electricity infrastructure planning considers the construction of an electricity link between Ceuta and the Spanish peninsula. This interconnection will improve the security and continuity of service in the electricity system of Ceuta and will represent a significant cost savings to the electricity system as a whole.

New link Ibiza – Formentera

This new interconnection will help cover the entire electricity demand of Formentera in a stable and secure manner at all times and will strengthen the security of supply, while promoting the green transition process of the Balearic Islands as a whole.