The Parliament of La Rioja has approved today, at the proposal of the Partido Popular and with the support of Vox, an initiative that echoes the statements of the Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, during his recent visit to Logroño, and urges the regional Executive to demand urgent improvements in the electricity grid from the central Government.
The Partido Popular deputy Mar Cotelo has defended this non-legislative motion, recalling that Hereu, during his visit to Logroño, stated: "If anyone has any problem connecting to the electricity grid, let me know".
The minister also pointed out that he has "no request" from La Rioja, although he argued that it is the Ministry of Ecological Transition that centralizes the demands of the autonomous communities.
For Cotelo, Hereu "cannot come to Logroño to say that he has no requests from La Rioja". Even so, and taking advantage of his willingness to receive requests, she has considered it essential to convey to him the urgency of a new flexible, solid electricity planning with sufficient funding for the 2025-2030 period.
The PP's non-legislative motion approved today states that this planning is key for La Rioja to attract investment, generate stable employment, and strengthen its industrial and innovative fabric, reducing the risk of blackouts and grid saturation.
In particular, the text calls for a strong territorial meshing in the main nodes of Logroño and Quel, guaranteeing the quality of supply and avoiding future technical limitations in the face of demand increases.
Likewise, it proposes to expand capacity in Quel through the installation of a third transformer and new meshing elements that ensure service in the short and long term; and to reinforce the Haro transformer station with the incorporation of a new transformer.
Furthermore, and given the lack of knowledge evidenced by the minister, the initiative demands that "there be a constant flow of information and communication from the Ministry with the autonomous communities regarding electricity planning, in order to guarantee continuous, updated, and transparent dialogue".
"The electricity grid is at its limit," Cotelo emphasized, remarking that "nothing new or disproportionate is being asked for". It is about, she insisted, La Rioja "having the grid that industry needs and sufficient planning".
The socialist Jesus María García has intervened against it to reproach the 'popular' party for their "hypocrisy" and to demand that they "clarify" whether or not they want more high-voltage power lines, given that, as he said, they have spent "the entire legislature hyperventilating" at the possibility of them increasing and, now, with this proposal, "they are asking for them".
Thus, he indicated to Cotelo that what he is demanding is that "the nodes and the grid have more capacity" and that this implies "more power must be brought"; something he asked "how it is brought", recalling that it is done through "a high-voltage power line".
For the socialist parliamentarian, "we do not need more high-voltage power lines, self-consumption and a change of model to clean energy is more interesting". In his opinion, "with this initiative, the ball is passed to the Government of Spain".
From Izquierda Unida, Calos Ollero has defended a change of model towards "public protagonism whose objective is the general interest", as well as oriented "towards sustainability".
Ollero also pointed out the number of high-ranking officials, both from the PP and the PSOE, who end up in electricity companies, questioning "if we can trust" both parties to promote a real change of model.
The Vox deputy Hector Alacid has stated that any initiative that involves providing La Rioja with more infrastructure will have the support of his group. He also added that there is a "middle ground" prior to the project of "the big company Forestalia, which wanted to cross our geography".
"Because the reality is evident, La Rioja is falling behind, our community has saturation and that means less competitiveness and fewer opportunities, because companies do not settle where there is no guaranteed supply," he stated.
Cotelo has specified that what is being proposed is a "repowering" and that an adequate grid provides "flexibility, load balancing and maintenance without interruptions".
He rejected that they are debating Forestalia, recalling that it was a line from Taste to Jundez that crossed La Rioja without generating any return for the community.
He also insisted that "this is the first time a minister has come to La Rioja without speaking to the regional government", also criticizing Hereu's "lack of understanding" in referring the matter to the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
"The industry cannot wait and energy is not a luxury," he stressed, highlighting that this non-binding proposal raises "concrete things."
The Minister of Economy, Belinda León, closed the debate by remarking on the importance of adequate electrical planning and agreeing with Cotelo on the minister's "discourtesy" in not even maintaining an institutional greeting with the president of La Rioja.
The initiative has been approved in its entirety with the favorable vote of Partido Popular and Vox; Podemos-IU abstained; and the PSOE abstained solely on the section that calls on the Ministry of Ecological Transition to prioritize the needs of La Rioja in state planning (detailing nodes and grid) and voted against the rest of the points, referring to the new electrical planning and the constant flow of communication.