Modernizing the electricity distribution network, making progress with investments in renewable generation and promoting and strengthening strategic alliances with industry. This is the ambitious plan to be developed in Cantabria until 2025 by EDP and this is how it has been presented to the Government of Cantabria in a meeting at the headquarters of the regional government.

The President of Cantabria, Miguel Ángel Revilla, and the Minister of Industry, José Javier López Marcano, have received the President of EDP in Spain, Manuel Menéndez, and the CEO of the company in our country and President of EDP Renovables, Rui Teixeira. This is the first meeting of the Cantabrian president with EDP executives since EDP carried out the acquisition of Viesgo in December 2020.

The company's executives have stressed to the president EDP's commitment to Cantabria, as they consider it a strategic region, where they plan to carry out major projects linked to the energy transition and which are associated with millionaire investments.

In this sense, they confirmed that the distributor will maintain the Viesgo brand in the region and that it will continue working to guarantee the company's supply quality, whose figures are currently 60% better than the national average. EDP plans to carry out the planned investments of more than 180 million euros until 2025 in the distribution network of Cantabria, with the aim of increasing its automation, digitalization and resilience. Additionally, this investment plan could be increased in the event that the Recovery Fund calls consider electricity distribution among its strategic lines.

Investment in renewable energies

Manuel Menéndez and Rui Teixeira also showed the President the characteristics and the current situation of the renewable generation projects that EDP is promoting in Cantabria and which are in the pipeline. Regarding the two wind farms proposed in the municipalities of Valdeolea, Valdeprado del Río and Campoo de Enmedio, with a total of 72 MW of power and an investment of around 70 million euros, these are projects that have been proposed in a serious manner, which are viable and for which a thorough environmental study has been carried out beforehand.

EDP is also working on other types of alternative clean energy plans for which EDP is in talks with several industrial customers. These are energy efficiency projects that could be launched jointly with other industrial partners and are related to self-consumption photovoltaic installations, hydrogen plants, PPAs (long-term renewable energy purchase and sale agreements) or thermal harnessing. These are innovative initiatives that guarantee local development, boost the economy and generate quality employment.

Revilla thanked EDP for its commitment to Cantabria, "with even more potential than before" and reinforcing the leading role that the former Electra de Viesgo has always played in the Autonomous Community. He also highlighted the commitment to the fight against climate change of a company that is present in 19 countries, that employs 12,000 people worldwide, 270 in Cantabria, and that relies on the region as "one of the pillars" of its expansion in the future.

Manuel Menéndez and Rui Teixeira have ratified before the president and the counselor EDP's commitment to maintain the Viesgo brand and the company's vocation to contribute to the development of Cantabria. Menéndez stressed that the region plays a "strategic role" for EDP since the absorption of Viesgo, while Teixeira pointed out that the announced investment of 300 million euros "reinforces and guarantees the commitments made".

As the company's executives informed Miguel Ángel Revilla, EDP has ambitious objectives to lead the energy transition, and therefore plans to invest 24 billion euros worldwide, focused on three main lines of action: growth in renewables, greater flexibility and intelligence of the distribution networks and innovative solutions for its customers, including comprehensive mobility products and services, a priority for the company.