Red Eléctrica advances administrative steps for a key infrastructure in Las Palmas
Red Eléctrica de España (REE), the Spanish power grid operator, has activated this Monday the administrative processing phase to carry out a key infrastructure in the energy model of Las Palmas and its port area. The General Directorate for Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands has submitted for public information the application for Administrative Authorization and the Declaration of Public Utility for the project titled ‘Línea S/C Sabinal – La Paterna – Muelle Grande – Las Palmas Oeste 1’. Initially budgeted at €1.31 million, the project aims to strengthen supply security in the north of the island, an area shaped by the increase in demand forecast at the Port of La Luz and Las Palmas. The project has been endorsed by the Official College of Industrial Engineers of Western Andalusia.
High-voltage underground interconnection to the port node
The technical design calls for building an underground electricity transmission line made up of three single-circuit lines at a voltage of 66 kilovolts (kV). The planned lengths for these sections are 0.497 kilometers, 0.496 kilometers, and 0.500 kilometers, respectively. The civil works are intended to connect the existing power lines operating between Guanarteme – La Paterna, Guanarteme – Sabinal 1, and Guanarteme – Muelle Grande to the GIS technology shielded positions of the new electrical substation called ‘Las Palmas Oeste’.
Using gas-insulation technologies (GIS, for its English acronym) in the new substation responds to space limitations and to salinity conditions in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria’s coastal and industrial setting. These encapsulated facilities minimize the urban visual impact and ensure greater durability against marine corrosion compared with conventional open-air substations. The direct connection to the Muelle Grande circuit, the key energy conduit towards the port site, ensures an alternative and redundant supply route for container terminals and for naval repair and energy production plants, for example.
Precedents in modernising port nodes
This new electrical rollout complements the Gran Canaria transport network development plan approved by the Council of Ministers in 2014. That national planning led to an investment of €3.3 million for the expansion of the 66 kV substation at Muelle Grande, located at the La Luz port. The measure, whose public-utility processing began in 2015, replaced the AIS conventional air-insulated technology yard with four new double-busbar configuration positions using GIS shielded technology inside the port building, connecting the Guanarteme and Buenavista nodes and leaving room for the expansion of local distribution.
While the Muelle Grande reform was designed to increase transformation capacity at a point of high economic and business activity, the current line project towards ‘Las Palmas Oeste’ consolidates the same redundancy strategy. REE’s actions over the last decade show that the industrial growth of Las Palmas quays requires a constant update of its critical underground infrastructures.
Support for the energy transition and offshore wind
The deployment of this infrastructure coincides with the development of offshore renewable projects along Gran Canaria’s coastline, where the Port of Las Palmas aims to serve as an operational base for the assembly of floating wind turbines. The public-utility declaration requested by Red Eléctrica will allow the project’s execution timelines to be accelerated, enabling the land-occupation processes required for the underground laying of 66 kV cables in the municipal area of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The public information period, set at thirty business days, paves the way for corporations, logistics operators and private individuals to review the technical documentation at the offices of the Regional Government’s Energy Department or before the city council, so they can submit the corresponding allegations.
Operational guarantees against the risk of insular isolation
Energy players and the port community on the islands are following the progress of these investments due to the specific characteristics of the Canary Islands’ power system. Since it is an isolated and fragmented system, the grid’s frequency stability depends on the robustness of internal interconnections and the ability of strategic nodes such as Sabinal, La Paterna and Muelle Grande to respond. Reinforcing the high-voltage lines surrounding the port area reduces the risk of forced disconnections that could halt the cranes of cargo terminals or logistics cold services.
REE’s investment in this urban stretch underscores the priority of shielding strategic transport terminals ahead of the European regulatory horizon, which requires reducing emissions from berthed ships by making their mandatory connection to the onshore electricity grid. With the file AT26/006 in the exhibition phase, Canary port operators have a technical roadmap that will enable them to support the consumption of large passenger and cargo vessels operating on routes across the Mid-Atlantic.
The entry “Is Turkey’s cargo ship being readied in Las Palmas port? Red Eléctrica seeks public utility approval for Muelle Grande upgrade” was published first on encanarymaritime.com.
