MADRID (Reuters) – The Spanish government is in the process of reviewing a cap set on how much companies can invest in power grids, Energy Minister Sara Aagesen said on Wednesday.
“We are reviewing the limit for investments in grids and transmission and distribution systems,” she said at the Spanish Investors Day event in Madrid.
“We agree with Europe that we need more investments.”
Renewable sources like wind and solar are breaking records in Spain. Their intermittent and distributed nature has made strengthening the network a key step to achieve the country’s ambitious green energy targets and support investments in data centres and other businesses requiring vast amount of energy.
However, under Spanish rules, the amount of money energy companies can pour into networks is limited to a small percentage of the country’s gross domestic product, since consumers ultimately bear the cost with their bills.
For distribution networks, for example, the limit is 0.13% of GDP.
(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi, editing by Inti Landauro; editing by Bernadette Baum)
