The future Tordera II desalination station in Blanes, one of the key pieces to address future water deficits in the Barcelona region, currently does not have the necessary electrical supply power guaranteed to operate. This desalination plant, whose processing has suffered various delays, requires a power of 60 MW and electrical infrastructure that currently does not exist for its operation. This lack of energy support has become more evident when the Santa Coloma de Farners-Riudarenes branch project of Red Eléctrica’s Vic-Bescanó high-tension line ran aground, a reinforcement considered essential to supply the area. The project has been stranded after protests in the territory, which the last two governments of the Generalitat gave support. And the promised alternative route has not been finalized.
“For years, no one thought about the electricity supply that this new desalination plant would need,” says a former senior official of the Government to describe the situation. The Tordera II project was included in several hydrological plans but was postponed until it finally received the definitive boost with the agreement between the Generalitat and the central Administration to arrange its financing. The agreement is for it to enter service in 2028.
For its implementation, Tordera II requires a new high-voltage electricity transmission line (400 Kv) with which to connect, confirmed sources from the public company Aigües Ter Llobregat (ATL), which oversees the project. The current network is not powerful enough to power this installation.
It must be taken into account that the desalination plant, if it operated at full capacity and throughout the year, would consume about 526 million kilowatts/hour per year, the equivalent of what 150,000 families spend (considering an average consumption of 3,500 kilowatts/hour per family).
The desalination plant has been left without an electricity supply when the Riudarenes branch project ran aground, as included in the planning of the Electrical Network for the period 2021-2027 within the Vic–Bescanó MAT line.
According to this planning, the transformer substation would be located in Riudarenes, as a connection point for the new distribution lines necessary to supply the Maritime Forest, the Alt Maresme and the south of the Costa Brava. The company Red Eléctrica de España would be responsible for building the branch, 17 kilometers long (400 to 220 kV). Red Eléctrica and Endesa should agree to build the substation and Endesa Distribución should complete the distribution route.
The branch line and the electrical substation garnered great social rejection. The project, which had been affecting the Guilleries forest area for 10 years, received more than 1,500 complaints from individuals, environmental entities and the affected administrations, as well as from the No to MAT de la Selva platform.
Finally, ERC and PSOE agreed in November 2022, in the midst of budget negotiations, that these actions would not be carried out, as long as a technically and economically viable solution was found as an alternative.
Sources from Red Eléctrica indicated that the Riudarenes branch is still in the planning and specify that the project is on “stand by” waiting for an agreement to be reached with the institutions (Generalitat, city councils…) about an alternative route that is to everyone’s liking. “When they present an alternative route we will study it; There are conversations, but so far they have not presented it,” says a spokesperson for Red Eléctrica. The same sources add that the connection with the desalination plant “must be made by the distribution company” (Endesa), although they admit the key role that Red Eléctrica must play in carrying out this reinforcement of the infrastructure.
Various voices in this dispute recognize that to overcome this blockage, the active participation of the Generalitat is required, which must lead a proposal to define the itinerary in coordination with the other “entities of the territory.” Sources from the Acció Climàtica department indicated that “a solution is being worked on” and that the intention is that when the construction of the desalination plant goes out to public tender, this year, the electrical connection will already be finalized, since both issues are linked.
The Red Eléctrica branch would require carrying out a project, evaluating its environmental impact and negotiating expropriations with those affected, which will take time to materialize. The big problem is that this entire procedure should be finished before 2028, the date that the Administration has given to have the new equipment ready.
Sources from the electricity sector clarify the need to increase electrical infrastructure in the area although current supplies are well secured. “We have a good backbone in the high-tension lines, but we are missing the spines,” says an expert when referring to the improvement that the Vic-Bescanó-Santa Llogaia d’Àlguema-frontera MAT meant for this entire area.
One of the options that is making its way to solve the problem is for Endesa to try to reconfigure some of its distribution lines in the area, so that it can provide, in a first phase, at least a third of the electrical power required by the desalination plant. , hoping that later you can complete 100% of the needs. “But everything is in the hands of the Generalitat,” they add.
The possibility of collaborating in this way, exhausting the technical room for maneuver, is an offer aimed at preventing the lack of supply from being an impediment to frustrating the desalination station project.
