Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has launched two prior public consultations aimed at allocating up to 11GW of grid access capacity to renewable energy and storage projects across ‘just transition’ areas.
The consultations, published through the Institute for Just Transition (ITJ), follow an Expression of Interest (MoI) conducted between April and June to assess demand for capacity at reserved grid nodes.
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MITECO is proposing an accelerated allocation procedure for 15 nodes, while capacity at the Guardo 220kV and Velilla 400kV nodes in Palencia would be awarded through a competitive tender.
The MoI covered projects seeking grid connections at nodes in A Coruña, Almería, Asturias, Burgos, Cádiz, León and Palencia, as well as Puertollano. Combined available capacity across the identified nodes amounts to around 11GW.
Agile allocation for 15 nodes
Following analysis of the MoI and consideration of technical and environmental constraints, the ITJ proposes a simplified competitive procedure for 15 nodes across five autonomous communities.
The proposed approach would allocate available capacity in order of receipt of applications, subject to applicants meeting the required conditions.
The proposed procedure covers 11 nodes: Carrio 220kV, Compostilla 220/400kV, Garoña 220kV, Robla 400kV, Lada 400kV, Litoral 400kV, Montearenas 220/400kV, Pinar del Rey 220/400kV, Puentes García Rodríguez 400kV, Puertollano 220kV and Soto de Ribera 220/400kV.
The allocation of capacity will be conditional on successful projects undertaking socio-economic commitments in the relevant just transition area, alongside compliance with applicable environmental assessment requirements.
Competitive tender for Guardo-Velilla
A separate procedure is proposed for the Guardo 220kV and Velilla 400kV nodes in the Guardo-Velilla just transition zone.
The MoI identified significant interest in these nodes, particularly for pumped hydro energy storage projects. The ITJ therefore considers a competitive tender more appropriate for allocating the available capacity.
The planned tender will assess projects against socio-economic and environmental criteria, following the approach used in previous just transition capacity allocation processes.
The ITJ has consequently opened a prior public consultation to prepare the regulatory framework for the tender.
Stakeholders can submit observations and proposals to both consultations from 24 September to 8 October 2026.
Spain has continued to expand its renewable energy infrastructure while taking steps to strengthen grid flexibility, storage and domestic clean energy manufacturing.
Earlier this month, the government announced plans for a national capacity market to remunerate generation and storage assets for providing firmness and flexibility to the electricity system, meanwhile MITECO also opened a procedure to allocate 937MW of grid access capacity for renewable energy and storage projects at the Mudéjar 400kV substation in Teruel, replacing capacity following the closure of a lignite-fired power plant.
In August, the government proposed requiring new data centres above 1MW to match each megawatt of demand with a megawatt of newly installed renewable capacity, while MITECO awarded €433 million (US$ 492 million) to 524 renewable projects co-located with BESS under its RENOINN 2 programme, including 1.22GW of solar PV and 2.3GWh of storage.
In July 2026, the government also awarded more than €160 million through RENOVAL 2 to 40 clean energy manufacturing projects and launched a further €355 million programme earlier this year to support domestic manufacturing of solar PV, storage, batteries, wind, solar thermal, geothermal and green hydrogen equipment.
