20% of the filling stations in each district and autonomous area, calculated according to the official census, will have to remain operational as a minimum service to ensure the supply of hydrocarbons during the general strike called for this Wednesday.
The order of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, published this weekend in the Official State Gazette (BOE), details that this percentage is set in accordance with objective criteria for territorial distribution, forecast traffic intensity, and the type of vehicles that usually circulate, in order to reconcile the right to strike with the basic supply to the population.
The text also establishes operating conditions for the entire logistics chain, so that the transport networks, underground storage facilities, regasification plants, international interconnections, and refineries of operators such as Repsol, Moeve, Petronor and BP are covered.
With regard to the distribution of liquid hydrocarbons and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the Government resolution requires giving priority to urgent orders linked to essential services, including hospitals, the armed forces and security forces and agencies, firefighters, ambulances, and centers considered strategic.
Likewise, an obligation is established to ensure the indispensable fuel to cover the minimum services set for air and maritime transport during the strike day.
As for refineries and regasification plants, the process units will be kept operating at minimum loads, together with the necessary standby equipment to protect the integrity of the facilities, avoid environmental risks, and be able to respond to possible emergencies or technical incidents.
MINIMUM SERVICES TO ENSURE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
For the electricity sector, another order from the same Ministry determines the minimum services intended to ensure the electricity supply, the safety of people, and the protection of infrastructure during the general strike, taking as a basis the reports from the system operator (Red Eléctrica) and the submissions sent by companies and organizations in the sector.
With the purpose of safeguarding the stability of the national grid, the regulation establishes the full operational availability of all nuclear power plants, conventional hydropower plants, pumping units, and coal and gas thermal power plants that were not already shut down for programmed reasons.
At facilities located in non-peninsular territories, it is also ordered that the entire generating fleet be available. The units that remain in service must adapt their output to the results of the daily and intraday market, and undergo the technical adjustments that Red Eléctrica considers necessary in real time to maintain the system balance.
The order also requires the maximum presence and operational capacity at all levels of the system operator’s control centers and of the electricity generation, transmission, and distribution companies, ensuring permanent communications and delegated dispatch systems in the event of any incident.
In addition, it requires having standby crews and urgent intervention brigades, prepared to act immediately on local command, resolve incidents, and repair breakdowns both in the transmission and distribution grid and in the control centers.
Finally, electrical transport infrastructures that are out of service due to maintenance work must be reconnected to the grid whenever their technical condition allows it.