After the blackout of April 28, which exposed the fragility of the electrical system at times of high renewable penetration, Red Electrica has imposed a new way of operating: A reinforcement system based on greater activation of combined gas cycles. What was born as an emergency measure has become a new normality. Spain returns to gas, not due to lack of renewables, but because – for now – it cannot only trust them.
And it will stay for a while … Since the end of April, the system operator maintains a reinforced operating mode to guarantee stability. Such as has confirmed ELECTRICAL TO ELECONOMISTA.es, this measure will remain in force while the technical solutions agreed to avoid new incidents are implemented. The incident report concludes that there was a lack of dynamic control on the network, unexpected disconnections and vulnerabilities in tension regulation.
The first changes are already underway: Royal Decree-Law 7/2025 He has started A battery of reforms, from the incentive of storage to the flexibility of access for hybrid facilities. However, the sector coincides: the total implementation will take time. Some urgent measures have a deadline until September, but others – as the reform of adjustment services or changes in the distribution network – will be extended until June 2026. Reinforcement, therefore, is not transitory.
Renewable yes, but they are not enough. And this situation occurs in a fairly paradoxical context. Spain is producing more energy than ever: in May the lowest wholesale prices in recent history were recorded –With many hours in negative prices-, thanks to the thrust of wind, solar and hydraulic.
So, the question comes back: why does it return to gas? The key is in the foul storage and demand variability. The renewable generation is abundant during the day, but it falls dramatically at dusk, just when consumption remains high by heat waves. No batteries or pumping To store the surplusThe system needs firmness. And that firmness, today, gives it the gas.
They have just launched an “antiapages insurance.” The government is aware of the risk. That is why he has formally activated the implementation of capacity markets, a tool that had been studying for years and now accelerates after the blackout. It is a mechanism that remunerates for being available, not only to produce, and that seeks to keep firm technologies operational – like gas or storage – to guarantee the supply even in critical conditions.
After the authorization included in Royal Decree-Law 7/2025, the Ministry for Ecological Transition You can give way to the specific resolution that sets two key parameters to activate these mechanisms: the lost load value (Voll), at € 22,879/MWh, and a reliability standard (Lole) of 1.5 hours a year. The objective of the Executive is clear: launch the first auctions before the end of 2025 and ensure that the gas plants that requested their closure (9,000 MW in total) can remain available while a structural solution arrives.
And prices rise again. June closed with an important rebound in the wholesale price of electricity, after the historical minimums of April and May. The heat wave, the increase in demand and the greater participation of the combined gas cycles fired the average cost in the market to levels not seen in months. The consumers’ invoice with regulated rate has noticed it: it has been the third consecutive monthly climb, According to the official CNMC simulator data.
In addition, in the free market, some marketers are transferring these cost overruns to their customers, even without a contractual clause that allows it. This has motivated A FACUA WARNINGwhich remembers that raising rates unilaterally is illegal if it is not expressly foreseen in the contract. In some cases, surcharges of up to 6 % per year have been notified under the argument of greater technical costs, which could constitute an abusive clause according to consumer defense regulations.
Structural challenge. The April blackout uncovered deficiencies that were already there: an excessively centralized system, little storage, few micro -redes and little local reaction capacity to disturbances.
The solution does not go through abandonable, but by complementing them. The gas, for now, plays that role. But the challenge is to do so in the future the storage, demand management and a more robust network. That requires difficult time, investment and political decisions.
Xataka | Broady in April, more expensive invoice in May: thus has affected the system reinforcement
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