Red Eléctrica: design, maintenance, and collaboration against fires

27/07/2026

Forest fire prevention forms part of Red Eléctrica's environmental commitment and the responsible management of the electricity transmission grid. Throughout the year, the company develops preventive strategies aimed at minimising risks, protecting the natural environment, and contributing to the safety of people, rural areas, and the electricity system.

Prevention begins in facility design

Prevention begins before an infrastructure goes into service. Red Eléctrica incorporates safety, environmental protection, and regional adaptation criteria right from the design, planning, construction, and commissioning phases of the transmission grid. The aim is to reduce potential impacts on vegetation, habitats, and species present in each area, and to reinforce the safety of facilities from the outset.

Security corridors beneath power lines are key to this preventive design. These spaces allow an appropriate and regulated distance to be maintained between vegetation and facilities and, furthermore, are frequently used by firefighting and emergency teams as access and evacuation routes in the event of a fire.

Likewise, during the facility design and execution phase, Red Eléctrica carries out field studies, flora and fauna surveys, and the identification of vegetation and habitats of interest. When necessary, routes, pylons, access roads, or construction techniques are adapted to minimise land occupation and reduce the environmental impact. Measures to protect soil and water resources are also applied, habitats or specimens of special ecological value are preserved, and affected areas are recovered through slope restoration, sowing, and planting.

A safer grid thanks to preventive maintenance

Maintenance is another of the main tools for reducing the risk of forest fires. The corridors running beneath the power lines must be kept clear and accessible to prevent vegetation from reaching the facilities; to reduce the fuel load and ensure that, should the need arise, teams can access quickly and resolve any contingency.

For this reason, Red Eléctrica carries out continuous inspection, maintenance, and supervision work on its lines, substations, and surrounding areas. An essential part of this work is the preventive management of vegetation through mechanical and controlled felling, pruning, and clearing in the security corridors, as well as regular silvicultural treatments at its facilities. This work is carried out every year, and the sustained increase in expenditure allocated to these felling, pruning, and clearing activities is proof of Red Eléctrica's commitment: from an annual average of €14 million in the 2019–2024 period, to €18 million in 2025 and a projected €21 million in 2026 for an area of 98 million m2.

In turn, this maintenance is supported by regular inspections via foot patrols, aerial resources, helicopters, drones, and flights using LIDAR technology, which allow the distance between vegetation and infrastructure to be precisely determined. This information helps to plan and prioritise work according to technical, environmental, meteorological, and risk criteria.

In addition, the company designs and maintains perimeter security strips at substations and carries out vegetation treatments on lines, reinforces facility monitoring during periods of higher risk, and conducts continuous meteorological tracking using heat maps. In the event of extreme heat or adverse conditions, preventive reviews are activated and control measures are stepped up.

Specifically, surveillance of facilities is reinforced, additional preventive inspections are carried out, work planning in forest environments is reviewed to limit high-risk activities, the availability of prevention and firefighting resources is verified, and continuous monitoring of fire risk levels and restrictions established by competent authorities is maintained.

What do we do in the event of a forest fire?

When a forest fire occurs that could affect electricity infrastructure, Red Eléctrica's priority is to protect people's safety, collaborate with emergency services, and guarantee, whenever possible, the continuity of the electricity supply.

To achieve this, coordination protocols are activated and permanent contact is maintained with the competent firefighting and Civil Protection agencies, attending firefighting command posts when required by the authority. Depending on operational needs, specific measures may be adopted, such as the temporary decoupling of lines or substations, or the preventive de-energisation – discharging – to facilitate firefighting efforts in safe conditions. The temporary de-energisation helps avoid risks to teams working on the ground and prevents accidents during firefighting efforts. It also allows affected lines to be bypassed so that electricity can flow through other lines, avoiding supply cuts to the population.

The transmission grid has a meshed structure that allows for alternative paths to be found within the grid when it is necessary to open a line.

These decisions are always taken upon request or in coordination with the competent authority, prioritising the safety of emergency operatives and preserving the stability of the electricity system and continuity of supply whenever possible.

During the emergency, operation and maintenance teams carry out continuous technical monitoring of the fire's progression and preventive monitoring of the facilities.

Training and institutional collaboration

Fire prevention requires coordination, knowledge of the region, and joint effort. For this reason, Red Eléctrica maintains continuous collaboration with public administrations, regional prevention and firefighting services, Civil Protection, State Security Forces, forestry agents, environmental technicians, and local entities.

Since 2007, the company has signed agreements with administrations and public entities in the different Autonomous Communities (CCAA) to coordinate actions regarding the prevention of and fight against forest fires. These agreements reinforce forestry management in the areas through which power lines run and include training, awareness-raising, testing of new solutions, provision of protective equipment, improvement of forestry tracks, and upgrading of paths.

Through this collaboration, Red Eléctrica helps improve the preparedness of teams intervening on the ground and strengthens prevention in the regions where the transmission grid is present.

Nature-based solutions

Red Eléctrica also promotes land management methods that are more sustainable and adapted to each environment. In this regard, the company has Pastoreo en Red (Network Grazing), an initiative that uses extensive livestock farming to control vegetation growing near power lines. In this way, flocks of sheep, goats, cows, or horses guided by local shepherds help keep the security corridors clear, reduce the fuel load, and help lower the risk of forest fires.

The project is being carried out in Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias, and Aragón, in collaboration with local livestock farmers, and has already enabled the grazing of over 146 hectares thanks to more than 4,000 head of livestock and around twenty local shepherds. It is recognised as a nature-based solution by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Pastoreo en Red provides other benefits: it improves soil quality, promotes natural fertilisation, contributes to an increase in herbaceous cover, and creates more favourable conditions for biodiversity.

Discover Pastoreo en Red

Towards more sustainable forestry management

In recent years, Redeia has reinforced its commitment to forest ecosystems through the Bosque de Redeia (Redeia Forest), an initiative that has helped restore more than 1,000 hectares and plant over 900,000 trees and shrubs across various parts of Spain, especially in degraded areas or those affected by forest fires caused by factors unrelated to Red Eléctrica's infrastructure.

This commitment is now reinforced with the White Paper on Forests, a roadmap with which Redeia is moving towards a more strategic relationship with forest ecosystems. The objective is to promote more sustainable land management, based on ecological restoration, climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and the enhancement of the services provided by forests.

To deploy this new approach, Redeia has defined a catalogue of actions focused on sustainable forestry management, restoration, education, and training, with the aim of improving forests' ability to face threats such as fires, abandonment, or the loss of ecological and social value.

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