Electricity cannot be stored in large amounts, and therefore production must always keep abreast of consumption in a precise, instantaneous way, requiring a constant balancing act. The role of the Spanish company Red Eléctrica, as the sole transmission agent, manager of the transmission grid and operator of the Spanish electricity system, consists in ensuring that production planned at the power stations corresponds at all times to actual consumer demand. Should a difference arise between the two, it sends the appropriate instructions to the power stations to increase or reduce their output.

Using state-of-the-art technology and real-time communications with the generating stations, Red Eléctrica tracks power demand in real time, capturing data required to operate the electricity system under secure conditions and managing the availability of power stations, restrictions on the transmission grid and international exchanges (with France, Portugal and Morocco). It also performs annual power demand evolution forecasts in order to draw up transmission grid development plans for the coming years. Adjustment services help bring the production programmes into line with the quality, reliability and safety requirements of the power system.

Looking to the future, Red Eléctrica has the capacity to safely integrate a growing amount of renewable energy (up to 60 per cent of the total demand). Over 300,000 GWh of renewable energy, provided mostly by wind energy, were integrated into the Spanish grid in the past five years. The security and quality of supply is dependent on a sustained investment in improving reliability of the transmission grid, including the increasing role of information and communications technology.

Source: Red Eléctrica de España, S.A. More information is available from http://www.ree.es/ingles/home.asp.