While the country breaks renewable generation recordsits nervous system – the transportation network – suffers an administrative thrombosis that threatens to stop reindustrialization and access to housing in its tracks. The diagnosis we’ve been counting for days: We have the power, but we have nowhere to plug it in.
The problem is more about papers than cables. The main person accused in this crisis, Red Eléctrica (REE), has decided to break its technical silence to point directly at the bureaucracy. As explained by the CEO of Redeia (REE parent company)Roberto García Merino, the company does not suffer financial or supply restrictions; The problem is that “he does not have permission to invest more.”
The gap between administrative times and physical execution is abysmal. As detailed by El Economistawhile building a substation barely requires one year of work, its prior processing can take between three and six years. In the case of long-distance lines, the scenario is even more bleak: six to twelve years of “paperwork” for only two years of actual construction.
The “waiting room” in data. This paralysis has left a worrying x-ray:
- 130 GW of renewable generation have access permissionbut they wait for the infrastructure to expand so they can pour their energy. It is a figure equivalent to the entire current generation fleet.
- 20 GW of industrial demand and data centers await a connection that does not arrive.
- REE’s investment in 2024 reached a record of 1.5 billion euros, but the company insists that every project with construction permit is already underway.
A collapse that extinguishes brick and industry. The situation is not just an office debate; It has direct consequences on the street. The Spanish electrical system has suffered an administrative “heart attack”. As we have explained in Xatakathe CNMC has been forced to postpone the publication of the capacity maps for three months (from February 2 to May 4, 2026) due to fear that 90% of the network nodes would appear “red”, blocking everything from factories to 350,000 new homes that, according to the Asprima employer’s association, are at risk due to lack of power.
Given this, García Merino calls for shock measures: the application of “positive silences” or “responsible declarations” that allow work to begin while the bureaucracy continues its course, a strategy that is already beginning to sound loudly in Brussels.
The Pyrenean wall. As the internal grid collapses, Spain produces so much cheap energy that it is forced to throw it away (curtailment). The Peninsula registers a surplus of renewables that plummets prices to levels close to zero or even negative. However, this wealth cannot be exported towards the rest of Europe.
The culprit, according to various analysts and the CEO of Redeia himselfit’s France. The neighboring country acts as a “buffer” to protect its nuclear industry, preventing Spanish solar and wind energy—much more competitive—from sinking its prices. With barely 2.8% interconnection, Spain continues to be an energy island that wastes its green potential.
The price of modernization Spain’s electrical future not only depends on volts, but on politics and bills. To finance this “reinforced mode” of operation and unlock investments, it is expected that in 2026 citizens will assume an increase in tolls and charges on their bills.
As industry sources conclude“the plans are very nice, but they have to be built.” Spain has everything to be the battery of Europe, but as long as the processing of a cable lasts a decade, that potential will continue to be trapped in an endless bureaucratic waiting room.
Image | freepik
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