Spain's grid amnesty sees only 5% of large consumers renounce rights

The Spanish government introduced a three‑month “amnesty” in March, allowing large electricity consumers with grid connections to voluntarily give up their access rights without penalty. The aim was to free capacity in an overstretched transmission network caused by speculative reservation of licences.

When the grace period ended on 22 June, Red Eléctrica reported that only 5 % of the eligible demand had withdrawn, amounting to 1,040 MW across 16 installations. Since 2023, applications for grid access have multiplied tenfold, leading the government to describe the situation as “administrative congestion”. Recent measures in Royal Decree‑Law 7/2026, including the amnesty, stricter economic guarantees and a five‑year expiry of unused permits, have so far proved insufficient, with many reserves remaining idle until at least 2028.