Competition asks electricity information on the flood of data centers requests

The National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) wants more transparency on the flood of requests to install data centers in Spain and works in an informative circular that “will allow the CNMC to have a more detailed knowledge about access and access requests and Connection of both demand and generation facilities, ”explains the agency.

Among the demand facilities are those known as CPD (data processing centers), very intensive in energy and converted into the fashion business in Spain in recent months. On the distributor table and Electric Red, owner of the high voltage network, requests from thousands of MW to connect them are crowded.

The Ministry for Ecological Transition works on the implementation of an auction system to order the demand and discard speculative requests. Sources from the department of Sara Aagesen indicate that “many” access requests from data centers “correspond to the same project” that consider different locations, “so that it is not possible to know the real demand of CPD.”

The future circular of the CNMC “on request for information to the network managers on requests for access and connection to electrical energy networks” can clarify the information in this regard. As competition explains to Eldiario.es, the proposal “contemplates the classification of applications and rejections by type of installation or technology, such as data centers.” With this information, the CNMC wants to prevent “discriminatory behaviors” in access to networks, guarantee competition and “improve the evaluation of investment plans presented by the network managers”, at a time when electricity is pressing to improve the remuneration of the distribution.

The CNMC, which regulates telecommunications and (for now) energy, does not come to assess whether a bubble with CPDs is being formed, since “it does not carry out specific analyzes on specific technologies, focusing on guaranteeing transparent and technologically access Neutral to networks, ”recalls the organism.

The document, to consultation until February 13, is part of the CNMC actions published in September, which plans to develop tools to improve supervision and energy information capabilities.

According to the proposal, the CNMC will receive monthly or quarterly information, depending on the casuistry, the demand requested by these centers and other facilities such as hydrogen projects, pumping, ports, recharge points, industrial facilities (new or extensions), urban promotions , rail, methanol, biofuels … and, on the generation side, you will receive the requests of all the technologies that are requesting access to the network.

Denied permits

The objective is to carry out “a better monitoring of the capacities that are being calculated by the network managers as well as the permits that are being granted or denied, and the reasons for it.” Knowing why these access requests are denied is “relevant when raising new reviews of the methodology of calculating access capacity and evaluating the investment plans presented by the network managers,” says the CNMC.

The agency has just pointed out to Iberdrola for supersaturing the electricity grid to plug data centers in the Community of Madrid, the region that until now has led the installation of these infrastructure, which have announced millionaire investments in other regions such as Aragon. As reported The worlda technical report of the supervisor concluded that the Madrid system reached an over -year of almost 102%, well above the legal maximum, because the Iberdrola distributor granted permits well above its real and planned capacity. “So far, according to the cases analyzed by the CNMC, this situation has been identified only in the case of Iberdrola,” they indicate from the regulator.

The proposed circular recalls that, in the case of distributors, information on requests and access denials is updated every month, but there are more than 300 companies dedicated to this activity and “it is necessary to establish a systematic shipment to the CNMC” that allows “Agilely collect all this information, and your subsequent analysis.”

The first information shipments should occur from March. “Taking into account the relevance of the information requested in the current energy context,” data on access and connection requests will be sent each quarter; Those of access capacities will be monthly and those of the expiration of permits, annual.

This circular will allow the agency to have more detailed and precise information about the access and connection to the network at a time when the objectives of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) require a relevant increase in the ability to Access of networks to accommodate new renewable generation and consumers, as well as recharge infrastructures, electrolyte, heat pumps and new consumptions related to the electrification of energy demand and decarbonization.

In October, José Bogas, CEO of Endesa, owner of 44% of the Spanish distribution network, said there are requests to connect the equivalent of 15 Teravatios Hora (TWH) for supply to data centers in Spain until 2030, figure which supposes around 6% of national electricity consumption.

The Norwegian consultant DNV estimates that these centers meant a 6TWH consumption of electricity in 2024 in Spain, around 2.4% of demand. DNV believes that in 2030 they will consume twice as much energy and in 2050 they could reach 26 TWH. “It is a considerable challenge for the Spanish Electricity, which will have to guarantee a constant and sustainable supply.”

As a recent Proequity study points out, CPDs are “the new trend” in the real estate sector and “have become the most interesting asset for investors.” The Bain & Company consultancy provides that the Spanish market of data centers will grow between 25% and 30% to 2030 due to the strategic advantages of the country: location, renewable energy, power of the electricity grid, construction cost and Good digital connectivity.

The big investments to install data centers in Spain, such as that of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Zaragoza, encrypted at 15.7 billion euros, have attracted the attention of this sector to the country, which previously played a “peripheral” role due that bets in the European market are concentrated in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris. These cities monopolize 70% of the total capacity of the ‘data centers’ of the old continent.

Meanwhile, the first drafts of the new hydrological planning of the Ministry minimize the impact on the water consumption of these centers in Spain, to which the PNIEC barely dedicates a line by pointing out that “a regulatory framework that drives and orders the installation will be promoted Sustainable ”of Data Centers.

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