The Energy General Directorate of the Government of the Canary Islands has granted administrative authorization for the expansion of the high-voltage electrical substation Dique del Este 66 kV, located in the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The measure authorizes Red Eléctrica de España to execute the necessary civil work modifications to integrate a new emergency generation position in the so-called street 7 of the complex. This technical expansion, which will be executed under a single bus configuration, is part of state guidelines aimed at drastically increasing the resilience and stability of the electrical system of the archipelago.
The engineering project, originally approved by the Official College of Industrial Engineers of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in November 2025, successfully passed the mandatory public information period without receiving any objections. Throughout the administrative processing, the main territorial institutions have supported the urgency of the work.
The Town Hall of Santa Cruz de Tenerife certified the full compliance of the project with the urban planning guidelines of the Special Port Plan, while the Insular Council ruled out any type of negative impact on land-use planning. Similarly, the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge issued its favorable report in mid-June 2026, validating the infrastructure within the regulatory strategy of the national electrical sector.
The resolution of the Canary Government emphasizes that the projected facilities are fully integrated into the 2021-2026 Electricity Transmission Network Development Plan, approved by the Council of Ministers. This action was expressly incorporated into the binding planning following a governmental agreement designed to strengthen the continuity of the network and ensure the quality parameters of the supply against demand peaks or contingencies in maritime and land generation. As it is a transport infrastructure considered a general structuring system of supramunicipal interest, current legislation exempts the development of the works from municipal licensing or preventive control acts by the local council.
The strengthening of electrical nodes at the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife consolidates an investment trend that contrasts with the industrial paralysis of its historic rival in the eastern province. While the Tenerife infrastructure streamlines its high-voltage projects without needing to undergo environmental impact assessment, the Port of Las Palmas faces a severe bottleneck in its energy planning after the dismantling of its main land-based cryogenic storage initiatives.
The availability of a strengthened high-voltage network in Dique del Este provides the necessary support for Tenerife’s facilities to accommodate the future decarbonization demand of international merchant fleets, including onshore power supply systems. Red Eléctrica now has a maximum period of twelve months to submit the request for final commissioning of the new high-voltage cells.
