Energy

In the metropolitan area of Barcelona there are three main types of energy infrastructures: the electricity grid, infrastructures related to natural gas and those related to oil products. The management of these infrastructures is regulated by the Government of Spain and the Catalan Government, and it is carried out by various companies, such as Red Eléctrica Española, ENAGAS or Compañía Logística de Hidrocarburos (CLH).

Energia
Electrical energy
Activities structuring the Spanish electricity sector are generation, transport, distribution and trading.

Generation corresponds to the electricity production process. There are ordinary-regime (OR) and special-regime (SR) producers. Regarding the OR, since 2008, conventional power plants (CPP) are being replaced by combined cycle power plants (CCPP), more ecological and efficient than the former ones.

In the metropolitan area there are two large CCPP for the generation of electricity in OR:
  • Plant of the port of Barcelona: composed of two groups, Port Barcelona 1 and Port Barcelona 2, with installed gross powers of 447 MW and 445 MW respectively. It is operated by Gas Natural Fenosa.
  • Plant of Besòs: composed of three groups, Besòs 3 (419.3 MW) and Besòs 5 (873.2 MW), operated by ENDESA Generación, and Besòs 4 (406.6 MW), operated by Gas Natural Fenosa.


They have jointly a total gross power of 2,590.8 MW. In 2011, they generated 6,182 GWh.

Concerning to OR, the main production facilities are ecoparks, the energy recovery centre of PIVR (Waste Recovery Integral Plant) of Sant Adrià de Besòs, the old tank of Vall d'en Joan landfill and the energy generation plant of Zona Franca.

Generation of electrical energy is a deregulated activity in a free competition market. There is no regulated planning, despite it is subject to administrative approval.

Transport is the transmission of electrical energy through the network to supply it to various agents and to carry out international exchanges. It is a regulated activity depending by law on a single operator, Red Eléctrica Española (REE), which is responsible for the execution of the plan of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade.

In the metropolitan area, the electricity network consists of a transport grid dominated by secondary transport lines, of 220 kV, with a very limited number of primary transport lines, of 400 kV. The main nodes of the 400 kV network in the vicinity of the metropolitan area are Sentmenat and Rubí, and the only 400 kV substation located within the metropolitan area is the one from Begues. A 220 kV network articulates from these nodes, with the main objective of bringing energy to the main consumption points, from which it is distributed through a medium voltage grid (mostly 25 kV).

Distribution is the construction, operation and maintenance of distribution facilities designed to supply electrical energy to consumption points.

Trading involves the electrical energy purchase and sale. This activity is a deregulated activity in a free competence market and, consequently, it has no specific planning or regulation.
Natural gas
Gas network is divided, like the electrical energy one, into transport and distribution.

Transport network belongs to the State and is planned and operated by ENAGAS, the only carrier in Spain. It basically consists of the regasification plant of the port of Barcelona and the gas pipelines going out of it and connecting to the State general network. The current planning corresponds to 2008-2016 period.

The regasification plant of the port of Barcelona is one of the most important ones in Spain and it is an input node of natural gas in the Peninsula. In recent years, several extensions have been carried out to achieve its current capacity of storage (840,000 m3 LNG), emission (1,950,000 Nm3/h NG) and berth (263,000 m3 LNG)

Distribution network (high, medium and low pressure) is promoted, built and operated by various distributors, among them, the most important one, Gas Natural.
Oil products
Transport and distribution of oil products is built and operated by CLH, which has a storage facility at the port of Barcelona with a capacity of 419,000 m3.

In Catalonia, transport network is more than 343 km long. It connects all facilities among them, and it also connects to the refinery operating in Tarragona and to the rest of the state pipeline network.

Concerning to CLH Aviation, it supplies and stores fuel at Girona and Barcelona airports.