The Juan Grande Combined Cycle Power Plant, in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, faces a necessary transformation, and this will be the mission of Pablo Casado, the successor to the regional director of Unelco Endesa, following the strategy of Gianni Vittorio Armani, the company’s new CEO, who will succeed José Bogas in April 2026. The Ministry for Ecological Transition has activated the administrative machinery for a firm capacity tender that will allocate 320 megawatts specifically to Gran Canaria. The objective is to guarantee the electricity supply for 2031, a date set on the calendar by Red Eléctrica (the Spanish electricity grid operator) based on the forecast of sustained economic growth on the island.
The measure directly impacts the industrial heart of southern Gran Canaria. The MITECO (Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge) tender establishes strict conditions for the modernization of existing assets. Severe penalties will be imposed on generating units that exceed 40 years of age by 2031. This criterion aims to force the retirement or extensive refurbishment of the most obsolete equipment still operating at the Tirajana plant, under an emissions requirement that cannot exceed 550 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour.
The Secretary of State for Energy, Joan Groizard, has conveyed to the Canary Islands’ energy sector and government that the integration of renewable energy is the absolute priority for reducing dependence on foreign energy sources. The process will allow companies to bid for regulatory life extensions or for investments in existing generator sets. The deployment also requires a minimum of 5% renewable fuel, provided it is available on the market—a requirement that will necessitate a technical reconfiguration of current combustion systems.
The regulatory framework introduces significant changes to the power generation business model. The draft royal decree presented by the Government seeks to liberalize and increase the flexibility of the system, allowing for the first time that energy storage—both hybrid and stand-alone—can compete with fossil fuel power plants. To this end, the Government will publish the average marginal price of generation in Gran Canaria, moving away from the current remuneration schemes that have drawn criticism for their rigidity in the face of negative prices in the mainland market.
Industry in Gran Canaria has until August 5th to submit objections. The sector is preparing for a competitive process that, far from being a mere administrative formality, will define the island’s energy landscape for the next two decades. The government is seeking a more efficient plant in Tirajana, with the capacity to integrate flexible storage and with a decarbonization horizon that no longer allows for extensions for infrastructure older than four decades.