IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020 - 67

by all Spanish electricity customers and 50% subsidized by
the Spanish government.
The demand price of electricity for retailers, direct consumers, and ancillary generation services is indexed to the
Spanish price for the same actors but partially corrected on a
daily basis. Indeed, the average price of the electricity demand
in Spain during the day is modulated in terms of the hourly
power requirements in each insular power system. This procedure is designed to offer a similar price in the Canaries but
somewhat discourages electricity consumption during times
of peak demand that are specific to the islands; however, it
does not solve the problem of electricity production decoupled from renewable resources in mainland Spain and in the
Canaries. In fact, wind energy generation is usually low in
mainland Spain during summer, when it reaches the highest
values in the Canaries. Also, the mix of renewable technologies is very different, not only between mainland Spain and
the Canaries but among the islands (Figure 3).
As in any other region in Spain, consumers in the Canaries can bilaterally fix the cost of electricity with a retailer,
and they can request the voluntary price for small consumers (PVPC) when the contracted power capacity is equal to
or lower than 10 kW and has an access point that is lower
than 1 kV. The PVPC for electricity in 2018 ranged from
108 to 138.6 €/MWh, adding 3.32 €/kW/month for the contracted power, the electricity tax (approximately 6%), and
the value-added tax (6.5% in the Canaries, compared to
21% for consumers in mainland Spain). The determination
of the PVPC is approved by the Spanish government and
has a complex structure. All these rules make the power system in the Canaries quite transparent. In August 2019, the
Canary Islands government approved a climate emergency
declaration that aims to decarbonize the Canaries' economy
by 2040 or, if possible, by 2035 (see "Declaration of Climate
Emergency in the Canary Islands" in the "For Further Reading" section). Since this declaration, an energy decarbonization plan has been in preparation.

Evolution of Renewable Energy

from 2005 to 2008-because of a high feed-in tariff that
was offered without any limitation on the total capacity to
be installed in the country, a situation that changed in September 2008. At that time, the lack of a defined plan for the
development of PVs resulted in a sharp decline in new PV
system connections and, consequently, a severe contraction
of industries with activities in this area.
At this point, it is important to mention that before Tropical Storm Delta hit Tenerife at the end of November 2005,
the Canary Islands power grid was vertically integrated, and
Endesa, the utility, was in charge of the power supply. This
meteorological event produced a partial but severe blackout on the island, and the recovery took approximately one
week. Because the main cause of the blackout was the fall of
some transmission grid towers, the Canary Islands' leaders
persuaded the Spanish government to approve a regulation
that gave REE the operation of the six power systems and,
after negotiations with Endesa, ownership of all transmission
infrastructure at a voltage equal to and greater than 66 kV as
well as any large power generator that injected into the grid
(2011), as in mainland Spain. This new scenario helps REE
table 2. The fuel prices (in euros per ton) published
by the Spanish government on 12 October 2018.

Location

Heavy
Oil (1%
Sulphur)

Heavy
Oil (0.73% Standard
Sulphur)
Diesel

Diesel
(0.1%
Sulphur)

Tenerife

350.07

387.62

541.21

Gran Canaria

345.73

383.28

530.61

Fuerteventura -

387.62

544.47

Lanzarote

387.62

544.47

La Palma

362.59

La Gomera

530.43

El Hierro

530.43

Fuel for producing electricity is exempt from taxation. Source:
Dirección General de Política Energética y Minas.

Wind and PVs
The development of renewable energy in the Canaries has
traditionally been based on feed-in tariffs. Wind energy was
the first renewable resource to reduce the generating cost
of electricity to a level compatible with low feed-in tariffs,
and Spain developed a wind industry that has strong international activity. Wind energy was also the first technology
to be deployed at significant values in the Canaries. REE
originally gained experience by managing wind energy at its
Control Center for Renewable Energies, in Madrid, Spain,
and it was the first system operator to request telemetry for
wind power plant integration into the national power system.
That helped to lead to a favorable technical consideration of
this technology by the Spanish government. PVs came later
to Spain-they were expensive and expanded massively
november/december 2020

table 3. The ranges within which grid operators
must maintain the Canary Islands power systems
(P.O. 12.2).
Voltage dip

90-1%: 10 ms-1 min

Voltage stability

0.85-0.9 per unit: 1 h
0.9-1.118 per unit: unlimited
1.118-1.15 per unit: 1 h

Frequency

47-47.5 Hz: 3 s
47.5-48 Hz: 1 h
48-51 Hz: unlimited
51-52 Hz: 1 h
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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020

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