Red Electrica, as the operator of the electrical system in our country, has requested the availability of hundreds of essential facilities and rejected its maintenance plan for the next twelve months. According to sources in the sector reported by El Economista, this has never happened before and comes after up to 35% of the combined cycle of installed energy has been out of service since this summer.
The request affects nuclear, combined cycle and pumping plants and although REE cannot oblige, it has shown its non-compliance with some of the proposed dates.
which happened. Before the 15th of each month, power companies must contact Red Eléctrica (REE) on the specific dates they expect their thermal (which includes nuclear and combined cycle) and hydraulic installations will not be available, as reported from Cinco Días.
Recently, REE denied compliance with maintenance plans for hundreds of facilities between October 2026 and September 2027, as indicated by Cinco Días. The reason given by the system operator is that it is necessary to guarantee electricity supply at a time when there is an abnormal increase in the unavailability of combined cycle facilities, according to elDiario.es. The REE statements collected through this indicate that only 65% of the installed capacity of this technology has been realized.
a vicious circle. Since the blackout, REE combined cycle plants have been using more. These are installations that provide robust power and, particularly in the case of combined cycle, the necessary adjustments to maintain network stability, such as dynamic voltage regulation. According to what El Economista explained, its presence in the peninsula’s generation represented 8% to 19.4% of the peninsula’s total.
This gave rise to a curious circular situation: on the one hand, REE required these plants to be available and their maintenance did not agree with outages. However, as Cinco Dias points out, many of them are about 20 years old and not designed to work with many startups. Therefore, this increased usage is actually helping to accelerate maintenance requirements.
Not without controversy. This decision is not only unprecedented, it has raised doubts in the energy sector, which does not fully understand the reason for the position of REE. El Economista says that, until now, the operator can reschedule a plant’s maintenance process in a timely manner and is always thinking of another initial date to run it. However, some business sources in the sector interpret the decision as a maximum precautionary measure after the 2025 blackout and consider that REE is trying to go on record saying it warned about plant availability.
For its part, the company explained that this decision is due to the high number of thermal production facilities that have been declared unavailable for unspecified reasons and denied that it is a general ban, since there are times when these maintenance works have been authorized.
A moment of excitement. Sector sources also criticized that this rejection from REE comes now, after approving the review of the proposed plants and hiring the necessary staff to run them, since only three companies perform these tasks (Siemens, Mitsubishi and General Electric), according to Cinco Dias. Because Red Electrica cannot compel them, the power companies have already rejected REE’s request to suspend these works and maintain their review schedule.
In addition, we must not forget that the semi-public company has activated the active demand response service (SRAD) a record number of times, in reinforced operations, which allows balancing production and demand through the voluntary partial disconnection of parts of the industry. SRAD has already been activated eleven times this year. In 2025, none.
What does this situation actually entail? Delaying the maintenance of these plants may be a short-term solution, but it may not be a structural solution. It is worth considering whether these maintenance works will be postponed Bread for today or hunger for tomorrowAs reviews are essential to ensure proper functioning.
While REE has clearly ruled out the risk of another blackout and is taking all measures and adjustments to ensure stable supply, all of the above suggests that operating margins appear tight enough that scheduled maintenance has become an issue.
Picture | Andrey Metelev
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