ELECTRICITY IN SPAIN
The interconnectors are the combination of lines with other countries. It produces some very important advantages for each country,the first advantage is the contribution to the security and the continuity of the electric supply in the interconnecting systemsdue to changes in electricity need.The second advantage is the increase of interconnections that usually produces some electrical changes to use with the different price in their countries, the electricity travels from the country where it is cheaper to the country where it is more expensive. The third advantage is the countries try to offer some cheaper prices than their actual prices.
At the same time a higher grade of capacity for interchange allows to receive energy from other countries in case of neccesity.
Spain has an interconnector with the Portuguese system, through Morocco with North Africa, and through the border of France with the Central European electrical system.
In 2002, the European Union recommended that all member states should achieve at least 10% interconnection ratio by 2020, this being the sum of the import capacities compared to the installed generation power, in order to eliminate systems, facilitate mutual support and promote the Single Market for electricity.
The actual interconnection ratio in Spain is below 5% being very far from the objective. In 2020 Spain will be the only country below the objective, considering it, improving and making more interconnections is very necessary.
Prices of the electricty in Spain
They have some different electricity schedule for saving the energy in the households and here we have some examples:
The electric price in Spain is composed by two concepts, they are very important. One of them is applied in the fixed term, such as electricity bill has to be paid monthly and another is divided into some various terms in which the electricity consumption is checked in particular periods of time.
The Kw price is the value established for the power term dwelling, which defines the number of electrical appliances that can be used at the same time and which is controlled by the Power Control Switch(IPC).
Price of kWh is the value of the consumption that has been made in a house during a specific time.
All the users who are inscribed in the PVPC have an electrical price for hours but it only applies in the houses that have a meter digital box, for the rest of clients who have a meter analogue box it applies the PMP which takes as a reference the cost during the billing period.
The free market has the capacity of fixed electrical prices, but anyway, it must have some rates to offer to people and make them have electrical savings.
The price of timetable discrimination exists and it makes the electricity cheaper at night.
Electrical centrals
Now I think that we must talk about the electrical centrals in Spain and how we have the electricity in our houses.
We say that the Spanish mix is one of the most balanced in the European Union, because the electrical sources cover 15% of total.
In Spain we have: thermal centres, nuclear power plants, atmospheric centres and photovoltaic solar centres.
One of the most important centre in the Spanish system is the wind energy, because it uses windmills' movement to produce electricity.
After this energy being produced the electricity in the centre needs to be transferred to our households. For this we have an electrical networkwhich arrives into the central consumption points of Spain and later it transfers to our houses. It is in the responsibility of Spanish ElectricalNetwork (REE).
People who use the electricity in their households they get it from:
-The production of electricity in the centres.
-The transfer of electricity into the electrical network.
-The transformation of the electricity to reduce the tension.
-The final consumption.
CO2 emissions
Associated with the generation of electricity in Spain the fact is that only 16,5 % of the total electricity is supposed to emit CO2.
Likewise, coal was responsible for approximately 13% of the total emissions of greenhouse gases in Spain.
This unquestionable reality put together a few peculiar facts of the Spanish case:
The coal is a suitable source of the deployment of the renewable energies, which needs support with full guarantee of supply, certain flexibility of operation as being under cost of fuel. This union between the desirable sustainable development and the need to support the energetic development with guarantees, is necessary to study the coal for finding good solutions.
With a view to the future, the coal will likely continue playing a valuable role in the generation of electricity in Spain, with redefine its functions adequately. The environmental requirements,for the transmission and for containment of the CO2 are going to concern in increase of cost; but all the future scenarios that are glimpsed in the energetic world frame appear towards a widespread increase of costs and prices, in which it does not seem that it is going to be specially difficult to assume the aftercosts in the kWh generated by coal, due to the new requirements of environmental quality.