Ribera foresees low electricity prices for a time, with "specific" negative episodes

He affirms that the queues at the electric stations this Easter are a "punctual" phenomenon, but sees it necessary to continue strengthening the network

The third vice president of the Government and Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, stated this Thursday that electricity prices will continue to be low for a while, with "specific episodes" of negative prices, as happened last Monday .

"There may occasionally be episodes like Monday's in which there are very slightly negative prices, well below zero, and yes, for a still very important time we have very low prices," he said in statements to RNE reported by Europa Press. .

Ribera has attributed this situation of low electricity prices to renewable energies, whose operating costs are lower.

"This explains why this growing weight of renewable energies in our mix, something that was impossible to imagine not so long ago and which reaches 65% or 66% of all the electricity we consume in recent days, offers such prices. lows, displacing other traditional conventional technologies in our system," he pointed out.

For Ribera, it is a "reason for pride, for success" that the important investment in renewables that has been made bears fruit and "everyone realizes why it is good to take advantage of our solar and wind resources" and why Furthermore, it is interesting from an industrial point of view to have these low prices and to invest and produce goods for these technologies, such as solar panels or trackers and blades or wind turbines.

The vice president added that the downward trend in prices will balance "gradually" and will stabilize "to the extent that other final uses of energy are being encouraged or when storage capacity has definitively taken off." to, at a time of low prices because more is produced than is demanded, use that excess energy to accumulate it in some other way, in the form of hydrogen, batteries or water pumping.

REINFORCE THE ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING NETWORK

Regarding the queues at the electric stations that have occurred in some parts of Spain during this Holy Week, Ribera has defended that it has been a "punctual" phenomenon and "particularly concentrated in a brand that has ultra-fast charging points and that in some way is the reference used by the owners of those vehicles".

"In general, this is not the case and there are charging points that allow, if you plan your trip well, to be much calmer, but it is obvious that we need to continue improving in this, continue reinforcing vigilance regarding maintenance obligations, the extension of this network of charging points throughout the national geography and this must be done with total accessibility," he noted.

In this sense, it has opted for the development of applications that make it possible to identify where and when vehicles can be recharged with ultra-fast charging systems and thus minimize the time that must be spent charging the vehicle.

The vice president has regretted that Spain joined electric mobility "late", since until June 2018 the PP Government was betting on gas cars, not electric cars.

"Since then, I believe it has become clear that it is essential that an industry as important for our country as the automobile industry and the capital goods and components that make it a very important part of our GDP and our employment feel that the Government accompanies them in the transformation and can successfully undertake their present and future viability strategies," the minister noted.

In any case, the third vice president has insisted that the queues this Easter at some electric stations have been something "punctual", since "the network of electric charging points on public roads and at gas stations is growing enormously."