Energy Central-News Article

The purple, who have been part of the Central and Autonomous Government in the last four years, have not questioned the operation of electricity distribution during this time, being comfortable and quiet, and now, they do it surprisingly, in a purely electioneering way, against their own political management*.

Oscar Izquierdo, president of FEPECO, insists that "it has always been said that any occasion is a good time to learn and we would say that it is also a good time to surprise. These local and autonomous elections were not going to be an exception and we have been able to see how some political forces have wanted to be original, the usual purple one, with their astonishing proposals, at the risk of exposing the superficiality of their knowledge".

The electricity system is made up of four main activities: generation, transmission, distribution and commercialization. And it has been in the distribution that some political force, Podemos in particular, it could not be any other, has put its attention, proposing its recovery by the public authorities, we suppose that by means of expropriation. Any minimally studious person knows that distribution (medium and low voltage) is perhaps the most difficult and complex to manage, as it encompasses a set of activities and characteristics, such as: access points, connections, network extensions, billing, maintenance, etc... which are developed in the first line of encounter with individual interests.

Both Law 54/1997, of 27 November, on the electricity sector, which meant the beginning of the liberalization process in accordance with the European Directives, and the subsequent Law 24/2013, of 26 December, declare Electricity Distribution as a regulated activity and the obligations and rights of distribution companies are included in art.40 of the latter Law. Therefore, we are facing an activity developed by a private company, under the tutelage and economic surveillance of the State, without the need to do it directly.

The Central Government establishes in each regulatory period the remuneration corresponding to this distribution activity through tolls and other functions and supervises and approves annually the network extensions, as well as the verification of service quality standards and others.

Oscar Izquierdo emphasizes that "based on the above, it could be understood that the political force that proposes the direct management of electricity distribution, the populists, would criticize the State Government for non-compliance or inability to correctly fulfill the Distributor's obligations. In this specific case it would be paradoxical since both at national and Canary Islands level (mandatory consultations) this political force has been part of both governments".

"It is evident that the management models of the different activities within the electricity sector are not eternal and must be adapted to the best defense of the general interests, but their electoral use, with the poor argumentation that has been put forward, exposes the immaturity of those who propose them".