Overview

• The mandated, standardized capacity maps published for the first time show 83.4% of distribution nodes cannot accept new connections, according to data from Aelec members and Naturgy.
• The saturation is concentrated in several regions near collapse, including the Basque Country and La Rioja at about 99%, Aragón at 96%, Navarra at 94% and Andalucía at 93%, while Asturias, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and Galicia retain more spare capacity.
• Iberdrola, Endesa and EDP, grouped in Aelec, together with Naturgy control roughly 90% of Spain’s distribution networks and call urgent reinforcement and digitalization essential.
• The CNMC has proposed a 6.46% remuneration rate for 2026–2031, which utilities argue is insufficient versus the roughly 7.5% they say is needed to finance upgrades and relieve bottlenecks.
• CNMC aggregated figures show that in 2024 more than 60% of access requests were denied, with projects totaling around 40,000 MW turned down, affecting industrial, energy storage and digital developments such as data centers.