The blackout has exhausted the patience of Spain and Portugal. They want France to stop blocking the two electrical corridors through the Pyrenees that are key to ending the energy isolation of the peninsula and increasing its resilience to voltage surges like the one that caused the system to collapse on April 28. The Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, and her Portuguese counterpart, Maria da Graça Carvalho, sent a letter yesterday to the French Minister, Marc Ferracci, demanding for the first time "binding commitments" and "specific deadlines" for these corridors that Paris has been delaying for ten years.
The Iberian alliance has a clear formula, a trilateral meeting with Brussels as an arbitrator. It must take place this year and result in "a joint roadmap with specific milestones and measures." In short, they aim to avoid more delays from France because accelerating the connections with the peninsula, they emphasize, should be "one of the top priorities, not only for Spain and Portugal but for the entire European Union."
The priority is to unblock the two trans-Pyrenean interconnections: Aragon-Atlantic Pyrenees and Navarra-Landas. The administration of Emmanuel Macron excluded both projects from the French Network Development Plan 2025-2035. In other words, they were removed from the political agenda for the next decade, despite both projects having the status of Projects of Common Interest (PCI) for a long time, a special condition granted by the European Commission to initiatives that are a priority and strategic for the interests and energy security of the EU.
Currently, the maximum commercial electrical flow between Spain and France is 2,800 MW. The construction of the two electrical corridors through the Pyrenees, which will require almost 5 billion euros, could increase this interconnection to 8,000 MW. Additionally, in a context of maximum renewable integration, the exchange with France has become an increasingly important tool for Red Eléctrica, the Spanish state operator of the electrical system. Sources close to the company indicate that during voltage surges, they have adjusted the energy flow with France to rebalance the grid.
As happened, according to the same sources, on April 22, when the interconnection helped to stabilize the national grid's fluctuations late in the afternoon. Industry sources mention that on the day of the blackout, Red Eléctrica again resorted to this solution before even activating the gas plants. With greater interconnection, the operator will have more flexibility to adjust the system by opening or closing the electrical flow with France.
It is not coincidental that in their letter, the ministers refer to the worst electrical incident in the history of our country. "The unprecedented event on April 28, 2025, which affected the entire Iberian Peninsula, has intensified the focus on the need to strengthen the interconnection infrastructure. This incident clearly illustrated the crucial role of cross-border connectivity in safeguarding the stability of the European electrical system under stress," the document states, concluding that the blackout has reinforced, "with renewed urgency, the need to act decisively both technically and politically."
Aagesen and Carvalho recall, in any case, that this is a historical demand that their respective governments already conveyed to Macron in a letter last October, following the Spanish-Portuguese summit in Faro, where they expressed their "concern" on this matter. Pedro Sánchez himself included this issue in the agenda of his last trip to Albania in mid-May to participate in the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC). The lack of electrical highways with other countries is what has led the Iberian Peninsula to be recognized as an "energy island."
Interconnections help lower electricity prices and increase the resilience of national systems against critical anomalies. The Iberian Peninsula could use these corridors to send green and affordable energy to other European countries, such as Germany, a demand that historically France has largely met with its nuclear power.
It is worth noting that the European Council has set an interconnection target for the Twenty-Seven of 10% by 2025 and 15% by 2030. In the Iberian Peninsula, it currently stands below 3%, a "systemic vulnerability" for the entire European electrical system, according to the top officials of the energy policy of Spain and Portugal.
Key players in the electrical sector are engaged in a fierce battle since the blackout. Red Eléctrica and the major energy companies are pointing fingers at each other for the blackout. The president of the state operator, Beatriz Corredor, has directly accused the owners of gas and nuclear plants (Naturgy, Iberdrola, and Endesa) of not complying with regulations on that black Monday. And the top executives of the electrical Ibex point to the operator as the "sole responsible for maintaining system stability."
Underlying this are multimillion-dollar compensations to the customers affected by the blackout, in other words, all of Spain. Red Eléctrica currently rules out, "at this time," providing compensations. Pending the government's incident report, the sector does not rule out escalating the issue to the courts.
Yesterday, the Spanish electrical industry association, Aelec, issued a statement to deny the accusations made by Corredor and Aagesen in recent days against private companies, accusing them of delaying access to essential data for the investigation. They rejected the claims that they were withholding information or delaying responses to requests related to the recent blackout. However, sources close to the government and the sector acknowledge an increased resistance from the major electric companies to provide files to the state operator, who is acting as both judge and party in the audit process.