Red Eléctrica de España has commissioned the 66 kilovolt (kV) El Escobar substation in Carrizal de Ingenio, in the southeast region of Gran Canaria, an infrastructure necessary to bolster the electricity transmission grid and increase the evacuation capacity of renewable energy in an area where the largest wind farms on the island is concentrated.

The new substation, which represented an investment of €8.6 million, is an indoor facility with a double busbar configuration that connects with the 66 kV Carrizal, Barranco de Tirajana, Telde, Agüimes and Cinsa substations, and which in the future will connect with the Arinaga substation.

The El Escobar substation joins the list of the newest 66 kV facility developed by Red Eléctrica in the area that came into operation in 2018: the Arinaga and Agüimes substations, and their associated grid connection lines, as well as the enlargement of the Aldea Blanca substation. All this grid infrastructure has been developed using state-of-the-art technologies and were designed applying sustainability criteria to adapt them to the territory and thus minimise their impact.

Boosting the energy transition in Gran Canaria

The strengthening of the electricity transmission grid in the southeast of Gran Canaria is a necessary and very significant step towards the island's energy transition, where 'green' energy sources will be the protagonists in an electrification process of society that will alter the way electricity is generated, distributed and consumed.

The El Escobar substation, in this first phase, will enable the integration of 25.2 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity in Gran Canaria, with the connection of the 18 MW Montaña de Arinaga and 7.2 MW Santa Lucía del Mar (phase 1) wind farms, bringing the island's renewable installed generation capacity to 282 MW, 234.6 MW of wind power and 47.4 MW of photovoltaic energy.

The new transmission grid developments mean that the Canary Islands now have an installed renewable power capacity that stands at 748.9 MW, of which 571.2 MW is wind power, followed by photovoltaic with 177.7 MW, renewable thermal with 3.4 MW, and 1.2 MW of small hydro.