• The substation will be brought online in late 2015 and has an investment of 36.1 million euros

The Regional Minister of Employment, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, Francisca Luengo; the Undersecretary of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Enrique Hernández Bento, and the Chairman of Red Eléctrica de España, José Folgado, today visited the development of the works of the new El Sabinal 220/66 kilovolt (kV) electrical substation, a facility located in Gran Canaria that will improve security of supply in one of the areas of greatest power consumption on the Canary Islands.

The event was also attended by the regional delegate of the government in the Canary Islands, Maria del Carmen Hernandez Bento; the President of the Island Council of Gran Canaria, José Miguel Bravo de Laguna, and the Mayor of Las Palmas, Juan José Cardona. During the visit, the monolith symbolizing the foundation stone for the construction of the new electrical substation, representing a €36.1 million investment, was unveiled.

Members of the Board of Directors of Red Eléctrica and Company executives accompanied the Canary Islands and State authorities in their informative visit to the site works. Taking advantage of their stay in the islands, the Board of Directors of Red Eléctrica will hold an extraordinary session tomorrow in Tenerife.

The El Sabinal 220/66 kV substation, which will be brought online later this year, was approved in the Extraordinary Plan of the Council of Ministers of 28 December 2012 as one of the actions necessary to correct the excessive concentration of electrical connections that are present next to the Jinámar power station.

This substation and the new 220 kV double circuit line that will connect El Sabinal with the present-day Barranco de Tirajana- Jinámar line, plus four 66 kV connection lines, represent a major reconfiguration of the Jinámar transmission network located beside the Jinámar power station.

The construction of these facilities is essential to improve the security of electricity supply and reduce the concentration of risks that currently exists in this area, owing to the fact that the 66 kV Jinámar substation is the electrical switchyard with the largest number of bays (37) of the entire Spanish electricity system.

These actions carried out by Red Eléctrica reinforce the guarantee and security of supply in both the metropolitan and northern area of Las Palmas, an area in which about half of the installed generation on the island is evacuated and one of the areas with the highest electricity consumption in the archipelago.

The El Sabinal substation will eliminate the existing evacuation lines that cross over the highway at the gateway to the capital, bringing more security to the highway, and it will improve the current conditions regarding the maintenance of lines and reduce the visual and landscape impact on one of the main entrances to the city.

Red Eléctrica investments in the Canary Islands

In the next few years, Red Eléctrica de España will make a number of investments in the electricity system of the Canary Islands exceeding 800 million euros. Of this amount, approximately 300 million euros correspond to actions approved in the 2012 Annual Programme, while an additional 489.4 million were added as a result of changes to this energy planning programme approved and published in the BOE (Official State Gazette) in July 2014. The later amount was earmarked for the improvement of electricity infrastructure in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote (309.7 million euros) and Tenerife and La Gomera (179.7 million).

These investments will drive the progressive change of the current energy model of the Canary Islands, which includes improving the integration of renewable energy into the system, as well as increasing the electrical connections between islands. The new infrastructure will allow the evacuation of the generation of future wind farms and improve the efficiency of the insular electricity systems, as well as the meshing of the transmission grid to ensure security of supply.

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