A couple of weeks ago, attention was drawn to the fact that the Es Murterar power station in Alcudia had used up all the hours of production time it is allowed per annum. Since 2021, Es Murterar has been limited to 500 hours a year, there having been a reduction from 1,500 hours, as agreed under the process to eventually decommission the plant. This is a coal-fired power station. Ending production has therefore been considered essential for cutting emissions and within the context of the climate emergency, as was declared a few years ago.
The 500 hours had been used way earlier than usual. There was some surprise and there was some concern, this having been heightened by this week's events. Mallorca and the Balearics were unaffected by the power outage on the mainland because of the autonomous supply. There is, if you like, an internal grid separate to the national grid. And so the islands' production from the natural gas-fired plants, four in all, and from solar was sufficient to overcome a breakdown in the mainland cable supply.
To that cable, which enters Mallorca in Santa Ponsa, will be added the second cable in Alcudia. Once both are operational and in anticipation of further expansion of renewables, Es Murterar can be shut down. The move towards carbon neutral on the islands will have taken another step forward, thanks to the cables.
On Monday, the Balearics were able to kind of pat themselves on the back because of the autonomous system, the goals for the islands being self-sufficiency and ultimately energy sovereignty that will not make the region vulnerable to whatever may occur on mainland Spain or indeed mainland Europe. However, congratulations are certainly misplaced. A reason is that solar, for now, only accounts for around 30% of total production, and renewable energy is under some scrutiny because of the outage. Despite the other sources, there is a dependence on the mainland cables, and this will only increase until such a time, whenever that might be, that the Balearics can achieve the goal of energy sovereignty; if indeed this will ever be achievable.
But even then there will be a risk, the need always being for a back-up. The cables would provide it, but it was the existing cable that was potentially problematic on Monday. Expert opinion, and there has been much of this, is that were there to be a similar event in the height of summer, the Balearics would indeed be affected because of the far greater demand for electricity. Given this, the focus has once more turned to Es Murterar, which was providing nothing on Monday because it had nothing more to provide.
Activating the power station in the event of an emergency wouldn't, in theory, be too difficult. The remaining two production units at Es Murterar - there used to be four - are kept ticking over. However, the use of the power station isn't simply determined by the will to reduce its emissions ahead of eventual closure. There is also a competitive bidding process by which electricity companies such as Endesa, which operates Es Murterar, receive compensation from the Spanish Government. What this means for the Balearics is that consumers' bills remain in line with those of consumers on the mainland.
It would appear that this bidding process was linked to the early use of the 500 hours of production. Moreover, this production was at Endesa's request. The national grid company, Red Eléctrica, has in the past been the entity that has ordered production. This year, it responded to an Endesa request due to "demand needs". And we are now only at the first of May. Confusing the situation is the fact that the government has not resolved this bidding process for the period 2025 to 2029.
Unless there is some alteration to the regulation, Es Murterar cannot be used again until 2026, implying that there may be an element of vulnerability later this year. In the longer term, though, there is the issue of a back-up. Endesa is understood to want to maintain Es Murterar as a necessary facility to meet demand, but it is currently hampered by the government taking longer than had been expected with the bidding process. And going forward, regardless of Endesa's advances with renewables and Red Eléctrica's insistence that it won't be needed, there is the question as to whether Es Murterar should in fact be on permanent stand-by. Just in case.