Ensuring a continuous, reliable, and sustainable electricity supply is an essential condition within the framework of the energy transition. It is not only about maintaining the quality of life and basic services in our highly electrified societies, but also about ensuring the competitiveness of our industrial fabric and the country’s ability to attract new investment. Spain has a unique opportunity: to become a European industrial hub if it can offer clean, safe energy at competitive prices, something we are already experiencing first-hand in Aragón.
In this context, the stability of the electricity transmission and distribution networks, as well as the design of a balanced generation mix, are key elements. Decisions regarding the composition of the energy mix directly influence supply security, electricity costs, and environmental impact. Therefore, its planning must be carried out with rigorous technical criteria, but also strategic ones.
Spain has a generation mix that combines renewable energies (solar, wind, hydro, biomass) and thermal technologies such as combined-cycle gas, nuclear energy, and cogeneration. Aragón, for its part, is a region where renewable generation is absolutely predominant with a lesser role for thermal technologies.
The challenge is to increase the share of clean technologies without compromising system stability. Sources like wind and solar photovoltaic, while predictable, are variable and require complementarity with firm and manageable technologies.
In this sense, synchronous sources, such as thermal, nuclear, or manageable hydroelectric plants, remain fundamental for stabilizing frequency and ensuring supply continuity. Asynchronous sources, like most modern renewables, must be integrated with additional support technologies, such as converters with virtual inertia, energy storage, or hybrid solutions.
Betting on a mix based exclusively on variable sources, without adequate backing from firm and manageable technologies and mechanisms, can compromise the operational stability of the system and push electricity prices upward, especially in scenarios of high demand or low renewable production. The experiences of some European countries, such as Germany after the closure of its nuclear fleet, offer valuable lessons on the need to maintain a technological balance in the energy mix.
The necessary electrification of energy demand as a means for the decarbonization of our economy anticipates a scenario of growing electricity demand. This factor, combined with ambitious decarbonization goals and the need for competitive prices, makes it imprudent to rapidly renounce energy sources like nuclear that provide firmness to the system.
Electric Networks: The Backbone of the Energy Transition
It is not possible to guarantee supply without a modern, digitalized, and resilient electricity network. The massive integration of renewables, the growth in demand due to electrification, and the attraction of new industrial projects require accelerating investment in distribution and transmission networks.
However, the current regulatory framework is not aligned with the objectives for strengthening and expanding the networks outlined in the PNIEC. The profitability of investments in transmission and distribution networks must be sufficient, and administrative processing must be significantly more agile.
To safely integrate renewable energies, the electrical system must rely on four key pillars:
- Smart grids, which allow for managing distributed generation and demand in real-time.
- Storage systems, such as batteries or pumped hydro, which mitigate renewable intermittency. For this, it is necessary to develop the appropriate capacity mechanisms.
- Digitalization, through IoT, artificial intelligence, and energy management platforms, which enhance operational efficiency and consumer participation.
- Electrical interconnections, which increase resilience and reduce overall system costs.
In summary, ensuring an electricity supply within a low-emission system and doing so competitively requires thoughtful and intelligent planning. This involves combining renewable generation with firm technologies while advancing energy storage technologies, flexible backup solutions, robust transmission and distribution networks, and encouraging consumer participation.
The key is not in a single solution but in the harmonious integration of all of them to have secure and reliable, affordable electricity that contributes to the decarbonization of our society. We have much at stake.
AUTHOR: Ramón White, President of the Joint Energy Commission of CEOE Aragón and the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce
