The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has increased by almost 50% its initial promise to the autonomous communities regarding the capacity they will have to connect demand such as real estate projects, industrial projects or public services such as hospitals to the electricity transmission network until 2030. If last year the commitment was to allow them to supply an additional 27.7 GW directly from the network owned by Red Eléctrica, the demands of the autonomies have caused this amount to increase by 19.6 GW more. until reaching 47.3 GW, in a plan that is almost ready to be approved by the Council of Ministers before the elections on November 29.
The Secretary of State for Energy, Joan Groizard, concluded last Thursday with the representative of La Rioja the round of contacts that he has maintained in recent weeks with all the regional councilors to present them with the figure of the connection capacity to meet additional demand that they will have on the electricity transmission network. This is the objective of the new Network Planning for 2027-2030, in which the Government's self-amendment for the communities involves adding 50% more additional connection capacity to the network than it had planned.
The third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, presented her proposal in September 2025, which included an investment by Red Eléctrica to increase the connection capacity to its network by 27.7 GW, which would be distributed among the communities, based on their requests to 'plug in' different uses, such as homes or data centers, and the need to balance plans between all of them.
Since then, there have been consultations, presentation and study of more than 2,500 allegations that a few weeks ago led to an accelerated round of meetings between Groizard and the regional councillors. Precisely, the councilors have agreed in criticizing the haste - with days of several meetings that began in person and with the Secretary of State traveling and that have ended up being telematic on many occasions - in presenting and approving a plan with which the Ministry increases the financing of the expansion of the network - 17,000 million euros, 3,400 more than the initial ones - and the connection points to the network - 52% more positions, reaching 300 -.
It remained to be known how these figures would translate into the possibility in each community of connecting large projects to the transportation network - different from the distribution network, owned by the companies. Finally, and after finishing all the meetings, the additional connection capacity to what they already have up to a total of 47.3 GW more than what there is currently, and 19.6 GW additional to the 27.70 GW that Aagesen offered more than a year ago.
The reason for the urgency that the Ecological Transition has shown in recent weeks is that new electrical grid planning is one of the measures that the Council of Ministers will take before the elections on November 29, with the intention of softening the war for access to the electrical grid that the regional governments have been fighting for months with the Government, in the context of networks already saturated and insufficient to meet all the demand that the regional governments expect for the coming years and which they have largely relied on since its development. economic and industrial until more houses can be built in the midst of the housing crisis.
After informing the communities one by one, there is only one procedure left for the new Network Planning to reach the table of the Council of Ministers and about which Ecological Transition doubted how to proceed. The regulations indicate that you have to "inform" the Congressional Ecological Transition Commission. But with the Cortes dissolved this was not possible. Finally, Aagesen will appear next Thursday at his own request at the Permanent Deputation to report. In this way, the Council of Ministers will be able to approve the Planning before the elections and the Government taking office.
In any case, and according to its final design, the Planning of the electricity transmission network for 2027-2030 contemplates distributing among the communities an additional 47.3 GW to those they already have to connect electricity demand of which Red Eléctrica owns. The transportation network channels electricity from the plants where it is generated to the substations to connect with the distribution network, but it also allows the direct connection of large consumers. Being from Red Eléctrica, the fulfillment of these plans necessarily requires that the operator comply with the investments, something that it has not done in recent years, in which there are projects that accumulate delays of up to two decades. In September, Groizard himself made this delay ugly in Congress by asking Red Eléctrica to "do its job" and design and accept "good" projects that the company run by Beatriz Corredor "said would never come out."
In this distribution, Aragón is the community that will have the most additional network access capacity for demand in the coming years, 6 GW. They are followed by the Community of Madrid with 6.5 GW; Andalusia, with 5 GW, and Castilla-La Mancha, with 4.1, compared to La Rioja and the Balearic Islands, which remain the same although, like the others, the capacity of the transmission network to transport electricity from the generation points is increased. The Valencian Community will increase its connection capacity for demand by 3.8 GW.
On this occasion there have been no major complaints from the regional governments about the result of the distribution for their territories, although the Community of Madrid has insisted that its offer be improved to provide connection to more homes in the south and north of the region and for data centers that are planned to be built in the Region. For its part, Andalusia insisted the Ministry "correct the deficit" of the electrical network in its territory.
Between kilometers and kilometers of cable that Red Eléctrica will run in each community to increase the capacity of the network and the promise of building new substations and expanding and improving existing ones and creating new connection points, Ecological Transition also outlines, based on the requests of the autonomous communities, what new demands the transportation network will meet in the coming years. These include housing, industry, the production of renewable hydrogen and also actions to stabilize the network, for example, as is the case in Andalusia, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Cantabria or Asturias.
Expanding the possibility of connecting new demand to the transport network to supply electricity to new homes is one of the most frequently repeated priorities. This will be the case in Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Murcia, the Valencian Community and Castilla y León.
The possibility that the industry also has more electricity from the transport network is also possible in the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Extremadura, Navarra, Murcia, Comunitat Valenciana and that data centers also have supply appears in the commitments for Aragon or Madrid.
