Spain Revises the Mudéjar Grid Award After Environmental Review

Spain’s November 3 publication of the revised Mudéjar grid award changes the deal struck when the country used access to a former coal plant’s transmission node to attract renewable investment. Enel Green Power España had won all 1,202 megawatts of export capacity in 2022. It can now seek updated access for 264.9 MW. The reduction changes how much electricity the revised plants can send to the grid and how much the company must deliver in jobs, training and investment around the closed Andorra thermal plant in Teruel.

Environmental Review Changes the Layout

Winning the competition established the capacity allocation and the obligations attached to it. Environmental review still had to consider the installations that would use that capacity. The February 2026 environmental declaration was unfavorable to one of seven proposed installations. The other installations received partly favorable findings with conditions that required changes to their configuration. The developer then submitted a revised design and asked the Just Transition Institute to adjust both the power project and the accompanying commitments.

The October order, published in November, authorizes a revised set of installations totaling 406.3 MW of installed capacity. That is the capacity of the generating equipment. The smaller 264.9 MW figure refers to the authorized allocation of export capacity at the transmission node. A reader comparing the numbers is looking at two different constraints: how much generating equipment the project can build and how much output the grid connection can accommodate under the allocation. Adding generators to a site would not by itself increase the second number.

The Grid Capacity Remains Reserved

The order allows the award holder to ask the transmission grid operator to update the access figures for the revised installations. It also directs Red Eléctrica to keep the other 937.1 MW reserved until the appropriate procedures are called and resolved. That capacity has therefore left the original award without becoming immediately available for another developer to claim. The remaining space at the node and the procedure for allocating it are separate matters.

The distinction has practical consequences for anyone planning a project near the node. The revised award tells developers how much capacity is no longer assigned to Enel Green Power España. It does not tell them when a new allocation will open, which projects will qualify or when new plants might be able to export. A future award will have its own decision and delivery record.

The Guarantee Follows Installed Capacity

The order lowers the performance guarantee from about €221.3 million to €48.756 million. It applies the original rate of €120,000 per installed megawatt to the revised 406.3 MW. Applying the rate to the 264.9 MW of grid access would produce the wrong figure. The guarantee backs the project and the commitments in the award; it is not itself a measure of how much capital will be spent locally.

That distinction matters when following the financial consequences. The amended award reduces the security that stands behind delivery because the generating project is smaller. A change in the guarantee does not document the amount spent on construction, the value of contracts placed with local suppliers or progress toward any of the employment commitments. Each of those needs a separate record.

Fewer Places Under the Same Hiring Shares

The award originally called for 321 full-time equivalent direct jobs during operation. The revised requirement is 71. Training falls from 337,650 hours for 1,300 participants to 74,412 hours for 286. The commitment for consumers benefiting from self-consumption falls from 3,795 to 836. These are amended obligations, not counts of jobs already created, courses completed or consumers connected.

The percentages of direct jobs reserved in the award for unemployed people displaced by the plant closure and for unemployed women stay at 10 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Keeping a share unchanged preserves the allocation rule, but that share now applies to a smaller number of jobs. For local officials and training providers, the figures worth tracking are both the percentage reached and the number of people who actually gain work or training. The next allocation of capacity is a separate opportunity; it cannot be counted against the gap left by the revised commitments until its own terms are known.