Spain’s Endesa plans to operate coal and nuclear plants beyond 2030

• 6 years ago (2018-11-22)
• David Flin

Coal 296 Europe 1089 Nuclear 659

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Endesa of Spain has said that it plans to continue to operate its remaining coal and nuclear plants beyond 2030, and that it plans to finish one more retrofit and to install new battery units, while closing two units in 2020. In addition, Jose Borgas, CEO of Endesa, said that he expected nuclear plants in Spain to continue operating as far as 2030 or beyond, despite comments from the Spanish Government regarding the possible full closure of the nuclear fleet in the 2020s. He said: “Keeping thermal plants past 2020 is essential. The remaining coal plants will operate beyond 2030, but with operational hours of less than 1000 hours per year. They will be used to provide backup, and capacity mechanisms need to be introduced to keep them in the system.”

Endesa intends to close the 1.1 GW Compostilla and the 1.0 GW Teruel coal-fired plants in 2020, where the upgrades required to comply with the EU’s Best Available Techniques reference document would not have been cost effective. However, the company confirmed that the 1.4 GW As Pontes plant, will continue to operate.

Endesa also confirmed that it would invest in upgrades for its power plants in the Balearic Islands, where it operates three conventional plants with a combined capacity of 1.1 GW. It would also invest in the Canary Islands, where it has a total of 3.6 GW installed capacity across 11 plants which largely run on diesel and natural gas.