Red Eléctrica de España has completed the power capacity increase of the 220 kilovolt (kV) electricity line that runs between the Quel substation in La Rioja and the La Serna substation in Navarra.

Today the Director-General for Energy Transition and Climate Change of the Government of La Rioja, Iván Moya, and Red Eléctrica’s delegate in La Rioja, José Ignacio Lallana, visited the area of ‘La Rioja Baja’ to take a look at the work carried out. These works, in which the Company has invested around one million euros, will contribute both to making a greater amount of energy available to industrial and domestic consumers and to helping evacuate the renewable energy production generated in the area; which is expected to experience a notable increase in the coming months as a result of new wind and photovoltaic developments in the area.

This action, included in the 2015-2020 electricity transmission grid planning approved by the Council of Ministers in 2015, is part of a series of investments made by Red Eléctrica de España in La Rioja in recent years aimed at achieving given milestones such as increasing the power capacity of the entire 220 kV line that originates in Miranda de Ebro, in Burgos. The work on the last section of this line, between Quel and La Serna, completes the power capacity increase of a key power transmission infrastructure that supplies energy to the entire region of La Rioja.

Other recent milestones achieved and which have helped strengthen the electricity transmission system in La Rioja are the link between the 400 kV Barcina-Santa Engracia-La Serna line and the aforementioned 220 kV line, as well as the construction of the 220 kV Santa Engracia substation which connects both infrastructures and enables the energy produced at La Rioja's main generation facility, the Arrúbal combined cycle power station, to be evacuated.

Increasing the power capacity of overhead lines is a technical project that helps boost the load capacity of the transmission grid in a specific environment by improving existing facilities and adapting them to current requirements, without having to build new lines. In this case, the aim is to strengthen 32 towers over a 36.3 kilometre stretch, without increasing the voltage level of the infrastructure, which will remain at 220 kV, but enabling more current to flow through the line (a greater flow of electricity).

Red Eléctrica de España has been carrying out regular power capacity increase works for more than 15 years. During this time, more than 5,000 km of 220 kV and 400 kV line circuit throughout Spain have been upgraded to increase their load capacity and allow more current to flow, with an overall increase in transmission capacity in excess of 20,000 megawatts.