EU bank pledges 1.6bn euros for France-Spain power link

MADRID: The European Investment Bank on Monday announced 1.6 billion euros of funding for a major electricity interconnection between France and Spain, fulfilling demands by Madrid after the huge April blackout.

Experts believe the severity of one of Europe’s largest power outages, which paralysed the entire Iberian Peninsula on April 28, could have been mitigated with more interconnections between the neighbouring countries.

The EIB said it would provide loans to the Spanish and French grid operators, Red Electrica and RTE, for the Bay of Biscay project, which will almost double power exchange capacity from 2,800 to 5,000 megawatts.

The interconnection, already under construction and due to start in 2028, will stretch over 400 kilometres (249 miles), including 300 kilometres under the Atlantic, the EIB added in a statement.

The first tranches of 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) were signed at EIB headquarters in Luxembourg on Monday in an event involving the bank’s president Nadia Calvino, EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen and senior French and Spanish officials.

The European Union has set an interconnection target for member states of at least 15 percent of installed electricity production capacity by 2030 to improve the bloc’s energy security.

The blackout exposed Spain and Portugal’s relative lack of interconnections, with support from France and Morocco playing an important role in restoring power.

The Iberian neighbours sent a letter to the European Commission last month calling on the bloc to strengthen interconnections in a bid to avoid further blackouts.

The EIB’s backing for the Bay of Biscay project “will be key to ensuring that the Iberian Peninsula is no longer an energy island”, said Calvino, a former Spanish economy minister.

Greater energy integration is “an important area for EU competitiveness and strategic autonomy”, she added.

Authorities are still investigating the causes of the blackout.