The Diplomat
UFD, the electricity distributor of the Naturgy group, will invest 1,340 million euros until 2027 to strengthen and digitalize its electricity network in Spain with the aim of optimizing the service to its customers and promoting the development of the energy transition.
As reported by Naturgy, this investment figure is 11% higher than that undertaken during the 2020-2023 period.
In 2024 alone the company will invest more than 350 million euros, which will be allocated to advanced low voltage supervision projects, medium and high voltage actions, cybersecurity and advanced asset management, among others.
It is expected that the investments made until 2027 will be destined mainly to innovation and application of new technologies linked to telemetry and sensorization, as well as to strengthening infrastructure through the construction of new lines or substations or the renovation or modernization of existing facilities.
The bulk of the investment will be concentrated in Galicia, where UFD is the main electricity distributor, with an allocation of 590 million euros for the aforementioned period. The rest of the investment will be distributed between Castilla-La Mancha (309 million), the Community of Madrid (276 million) and Castilla y León (164 million).
These investments will allow UFD to continue increasing the quality of the electricity supply in its network.
In the last five years, the company has managed to improve the service offered to its customers by 27%, measured through the interruption time equivalent to the installed power (Tiepi). This indicator stood at 30.7 minutes at the end of 2023, compared to the last sector average of 55 minutes reported in 2021.
The general director of Naturgy Networks, Pedro Larrea, highlighted that “this great investment effort will allow a reinforcement of the efficiency, safety and quality of our service and will contribute decisively to achieving the objectives of the energy transition by facilitating the integration of the constant increase in renewable generation, self-consumption and distributed generation”.
For her part, Mónica Puente, director of Spanish Electricity Networks at Naturgy, added that “the investments made by UFD, together with the resources dedicated to operation and maintenance, have contributed to the reliability of our service reaching 99.99. % in recent years”.
The National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec), as the main medium-term decarbonization strategy for Spain, proposes in the draft update to 2030 the integration of more than 120 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity (wind and solar) and establishes measures for the decarbonization of demand.
To achieve these objectives, the plan proposes a volume of investment in networks of at least 53 billion in the coming years.
