IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020 - 68

to be proactive in building new substations and repowering
many transmission lines and substations to inject multi--
megawatt renewable generation into the grid.
The bulk of the PV capacity was very much concentrated
in defined areas, having avoided development in parallel
with distributed generation in urban areas because large PV
power plants are more attractive to major investors looking
for inexpensive land (of which there is a significant amount
in semiarid areas in the southeast of each island) and since,
at the time (2005-2008), it was not economically attractive
to build new grid lines. In fact, Tenerife has the highest PV
penetration, and most of the 106 MW of installed capacity is
centered at two 66/20-kV substations connected to a preexisting 66-kV line.
Some PV investors are public entities because they regulate the available land and understand that wind and other
renewables can offer high returns on public investments
when the technologies start to be subsidized. The market has been evolving rapidly, however, after the Spanish

45 MW
259 GWh
4.92 MW
4 MW
15 MW

government's approval of Royal Decree 244/2019 regarding self-consumption (including net metering and selling
surplus energy to the power system) and EU Regulation
943/2019 and Directive 944/2019 concerning the electricity market. These instruments have regulated individual and
collective self-consumption with and without surpluses, net
metering, and selling excess electricity directly to the grid.
At present, Spain is installing, on average, 1 MW of PVs
daily for self-consumption, and the market is growing. This
dynamic is also reaching the Canaries.

Geothermal Energy
There is a long-standing discussion about the opportunity to
introduce geothermal energy to produce electricity on the
islands, and preliminary studies have been conducted since
the 1970s; however, the lack of active volcanos in the Canaries and the high cost of drilling makes the necessary exploratory activity very risky. There are some volcanic areas
showing geochemical activity that can be compatible with

2018 Annual Peak Load
2018 Annual Demand
Wind Capacity
PV Capacity
Pumping Capacity
(Red: Projected)

100 MVA

8 MW
42 WWh
11.5 MW
0.031 MW
11.32 MW

Lanzarote

1 × 66 kV
1 × 132 kv, 90 MVA

12 MW
73 GWh
0.36 MW
0.008 MW

2 × 66 kV
50 MVA

Interconnection
Projected

578 MW
3,514 GWh
196 MW
106 MW
200 MW

254 MW
1,551 GWh
51 MW
19 MW
Fuerteventura

100 MVA

549 MW
3,403 GWh
173 MW
36 MW
200 MW

: 220 kV
: 66 kV

figure 3. The transmission circuits and main parameters of the Canaries' power grids. The box with the dark-red outline
is the key to the information conveyed by the boxes with light-red borders; the red text indicates pumping systems that are
being studied. The yellow boxes give the main parameters of interconnections that are in service or under review. Only
the repowering of the interconnection between Fuerteventura and Lanzarote is expected during the short term. (Source:
REE and the Spanish government; author's elaboration.)
68	

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