A fondo: Análisis 2017 | In depth: 2017 Analysis FuturEnergy | Diciembre 2017-Enero 2018 December 2017-January 2018 www.futurenergyweb.es 47 de sus casi 400.000 empleados trabajando desde casa, ha decidido llevar de vuelta a casi todos a sus oficinas. Y es que las conexiones visuales, verbales y presenciales aumentan la productividad. Igualito que en las conexiones energéticas. La nueva interconexión debe ir acompañada por importantes cambios. Superada la barrera física, debemos superar la barrera económica. Los costes de peaje para pasar el gas desde Francia a España deben bajar considerablemente; un peaje muy elevado bloquearía la circulación de gas haciendo que el tubo no se utilice. Parece justo que Francia nos cobre el mismo peaje que a un industrial grande de Marsella, Biarritz o Perpiñán, pero no más. Y además, si la capacidad es interrumpible y en cualquier momento Francia puede decidir cortar la conexión por cualquier motivo ¿quién va a querer contratar? Con estas premisas, el nuevo tubo será un éxito para la competitividad de las industrias. Esta conexión actuará además como arma estratégica para la competencia de los mercados, para que a nadie actúe con maneras de monopolio. Peajes Por último pero nomenos importante, en España seguimos teniendo los peajes más altos de Europa. Fruto de nuestras particularidades pasadas, pagamos el doble que Francia o Italia y hasta tres o cuatro veces los costes de Alemania. Para una industria con una planta de cogeneración de 40 MW, los peajes suponen más de 3 M€, lo que resta competitividad y es una razón por las que las empresas con plantas intensivas en energía no se expanden ni crean nuevos puestos de trabajo. Sin peajes más competitivos, la industria manufacturera española nos saldrá de ese mísero 12-13% que supone en el PIB y en el que llevamos diez años flotando. Y es que, durante la más terrible de las crisis, los peajes del gas han aumentado casi un 7%. No hay derecho a que los industriales estemos pagando la expansión exacerbada de infraestructuras creadas específicamente para producir electricidad con ciclos combinados. Al no haber demanda eléctrica de los ciclos, a los industriales -que solo pasábamos por allí- nos cargaron con el burro. Supuestamente, la ley de peajes debe cambiarse en 2020 pero los industriales no pueden esperar. Hay que buscar urgentemente fórmulas y soluciones para bajar los peajes, de modo que nuestra industria pueda competir con nuestros amigos europeos de igual a igual. that the lack of gas and electricity connections costs us €1.2bn per year, but I am sure that it is much more. In the 1970s and 1980s, for many reasons, France did not want to connect Spain to Dutch and Norwegian gas via a huge pipeline so we had to resort to regasification plants and pipelines with Algeria. Today’s situation has been brought about by a mixture of contempt and fear of industrial and agricultural competition from the Iberian Peninsula. Even with the future MIDCAT connection, we will not be as well-interconnected as every other Central European country. Europe has no right to ignore us, even though it is down to our own weaknesses.We have not been sufficiently active besides the fact that the Pyrenees are not easy to cross. Changes are now taking place here, in Europe and even in France. New electrical connections are already being planned. On 24 November, the Energy Directorate thankfully agreed to place STEP on the list of common interest projects. IBM, which ten years ago had 40% of its almost 400,000 employees working from home, has decided to return nearly all of them to their desks and this is because visual, verbal and physical connections increase productivity. The same goes for energy connections. The new interconnection has to be accompanied by significant changes. Having overcome the physical barrier, we have to address the economic. The costs of tolls to bring gas from France into Spain have to drop considerably as a very high toll would block the circulation of gas leaving the pipeline unused. It would seem fair for France to charge us the same toll as a large industrial company in Marseilles, Biarritz or Perpignan, but no more. But if production can be interrupted and France can decide to cut the connection for any reason and at any time, who would contract such a service? On these bases, the new pipeline will be a success for industrial competitiveness. This connection would furthermore act as a strategic arm for market competition so that no-one has a monopoly. Tolls Last but by no means least, Spain continues to have the highest tolls in Europe. The result of past peculiarities, we pay twice that of France or Italy and up to three or four times the costs of Germany. For an industry with a 40 MW CHP plant, tolls represent over €3m, a sum which detracts from its competitiveness and is one reason why companies with energy intensive plants do not expand or create new jobs. Without more competitive tolls, Spanish manufacturing industry will create a miserable 12-13% of GDP at the same level as of the past ten years. And during the worst of the crisis, gas tolls increased by almost 7%. It is outrageous that industries are paying for the aggravated expansion of infrastructures specifically designed to produce electricity from combined cycles. And when these cycles have no electricity demand, the knock-on effect is that industry pays the consequences. The tolls law clearly has to change by 2020, but industry cannot wait. Formulae and solutions are urgently required to bring down tolls so that Spanish industry is able to compete with our European friends on equal terms.
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