EIB and Iberdrola sign loans totalling €108 million for energy storage infrastructure

The operation aims to improve the pumping capacity of the Valdecañas hydroelectric complex, which encompasses the Torrejón and the Valdecañas power plants.

The complex will help to secure energy supply and create storage capacity enabling the integration and management of renewable energy. The Valdecañas plant will have a total installed capacity of 225 MW, a 15 MW hybrid battery and 7.5 MWh of stored energy.

Together, the battery and hydroelectric units will make it possible to increase the added pumping capacity to a maximum of 313 MW and the storage capacity of the Tajo system to 210 GWh. The works to improve the pumping capacity will make use of the existing installations in the Valdecañas and Torrejón-Tajo reservoirs – without changes to the levels of operation – and the existing transport networks, thus reducing the impact on the environment.

Once up and running, the complex will help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, the improvement works will directly create 165 jobs and a further 500 indirectly, boosting skilled employment. The total investment will take place in a cohesion region, an area where the per capita income is below the EU average. In this way, the project will contribute to climate action and territorial, economic, and social cohesion – two of the eight priorities set out in the EIB Group’s ‘Strategic Roadmap’ for the years 2024 – 2027.

Having received funding from the FRA, the project is also in line with the objectives of Spain’s Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan. The FRA directs funding from the NextGenerationEU programme to boost investment in Spain’s autonomous communities, predominantly for environmental and social projects. The fund is led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Enterprise and is supported by the autonomous communities and cities and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), with the EIB Group as a strategic management partner.

This operation is line with the EIB’s action plan to support the REPowerEU initiative to improve energy security in the European Union and to reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports.

How the Valdecañas pumped-storage hydroelectric complex works

Reversible pumping plants, such as those in the Valdecañas hydroelectric complex, make it possible to use and generate electricity quickly, allowing for better management of the consumption and demand curve and stabilising the electricity grid. The upper reservoir – which feeds the plant – acts like a storage system that is charged with the water’s potential energy. Energy can then be stored when excess energy is generated from other non-dispatchable energy sources and can subsequently be recovered when needed. It operates like a closed circuit between the upper and lower reservoir, which does not just consume water, but also reuses it. This system, which is independent of precipitation and water resources, has a long service life and can provide wide-reaching reinforcement to the electricity grid.

 

 

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