Naturgy will invest €1.340 billion in the digitalisation and improvement of its electricity network in Spain to boost the energy transition

• These investments will continue to improve the electricity supply offered to customers and boost decarbonisation by favouring the integration of renewable energies and self-consumption.

• UFD, the Group’s electricity distribution company, has improved its service quality by 27% over the last five years.

UFD, the electricity distributor of the Naturgy group, will invest €1.340 billion until 2027 to strengthen and digitise its electricity grid in Spain with the aim of optimising service to its customers and encouraging development of the energy transition. This investment figure is 11% higher than that undertaken during the 2020-2023 period.

The investments foreseen in this period will be mainly aimed at innovation and the application of new technologies linked to remote measurement and sensorisation, as well as the strengthening of infrastructures through the construction of new lines or substations or the renovation or modernisation of existing facilities. In 2024 alone, the company will invest more than €350 million in advanced low-voltage supervision projects, medium and high-voltage actions, cybersecurity and advanced asset management, among other things.

The bulk of the investment will be concentrated in Galicia, where UFD is the main electricity distributor, with an allocation of €590 million between 2024 and 2027. The rest of the investment will be shared between Castilla-La Mancha (€309 million), the Community of Madrid (€276 million) and Castilla y León (€164 million).

These investments will allow UFD to further increase the quality of power supply in its network. The company has managed to improve the service offered to its customers by 27% over the last five years, measured by the installed power equivalent interruption time (IPEIT). This indicator stood at 30.7 minutes at the end of 2023, compared to the last sector average of 55 minutes reported in 2021.

Naturgy’s General Manager of Networks, Pedro Larrea, stressed that “this major investment effort will allow us to reinforce the efficiency, safety and quality of our service and will make a decisive contribution to achieving the objectives of the energy transition by facilitating the integration of the constant increase in renewable generation, self-consumption and distributed generation”.

“The investments made by UFD, together with the resources dedicated to operation and maintenance, have contributed to the reliability of our service reaching 99.99% in recent years,” explains Mónica Puente, Director of Electricity Networks Spain at Naturgy.

The National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), as the main medium-term decarbonisation strategy for Spain, proposes in the draft update to 2030 the integration of more than 120 GW of renewable capacity (wind and solar) and establishes measures for the decarbonisation of demand. To achieve these goals, the plan proposes a volume of investment in networks of at least €53 billion over the next few years.

Electricity distribution grids play a strategic role in driving the energy and digital transitions, guaranteeing electricity supply and supporting the increasing integration of renewable generation and the development of new services such as self-consumption to advance decarbonisation goals. This role requires investments for the modernisation and expansion of existing infrastructure and its adaptation to new challenges.

UFD in figures

UFD is present in Galicia, where it is the largest electricity distributor, as well as in Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and the Madrid region. It currently serves almost 3.8 million supply points with a network of 116,000 kilometres of high, medium and low voltage lines, maintaining and operating the networks with a commitment to ensuring service under conditions of efficiency, safety and quality.

The company has a Digital Services Platform, a space where users can carry out all their transactions from any device, at any time and from any place, and is the main point of contact between the various agents in the electricity system.

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