2023-10-28 04:15:00
The Asturian industrial and financial group Masaveu, a reference shareholder of the EDP company, will assume 50% of the Aboño (Carreño) thermal power plant, until now 100% owned by the energy multinational, according to an agreement reached between both groups. Masaveu will in turn be able to subscribe 10% of the future Hydrogen Valley project that the Portuguese company plans to develop in this same energy site and which is already underway and has begun its environmental processing. The parties did not reveal the financial amount of the 50% of the Aboño thermal power plant acquired by Masaveu, although it is, in any case, a very high figure.
Along with this shareholding agreement, the two partners have committed to undertake, starting next year, the investment of 40 million in group 2 of the Aboño thermal power plant, which was announced the day before yesterday by the CEO of EDP Spain, Ana Paula Marques, in a conference on fair energy transition held in Ponferrada (León), and with which the use of coal will be replaced by natural gas in July 2025, anticipating by six months the announced abandonment of the mineral as a primary source in EDP plants.
The transformation of Aboño 2 to the use of natural gas – in addition to continuing the consumption of ArcelorMittal steel gases – will mean extending the expected life of this thermal group, which is crucial to guarantee the electricity supply to the industrial heart of Asturias, made up of manufacturing companies with high energy consumption, as well as to provide stability to the electrical system as a backup installation.
The agreement opens the possibility of Masaveu entering as a shareholder in the green projects for Los Barrios, Puente Nuevo and Soto de Ribera
Along with the possible minority participation of Corporación Masaveu in the future H2 Valley Aboño green hydrogen complex promoted by EDP, the pact between the two companies incorporates the option for the Asturian family group to become involved as a shareholder in the other technology transition projects. clean technologies that EDP will promote in the rest of its thermal plants in Spain: Soto de Ribera (Asturias), Los Barrios (Cádiz) and Puente Nuevo (Córdoba).
With these decisions, EDP and Masaveu reinforce their traditional alliance. The Asturian family group is, through the company Oppidum Capital (shared with Unicaja Banca, a minority partner), the second largest owner of the Portuguese energy multinational, of which it owns more than 7%.
EDP segregated the assets of the Aboño Thermal Power Plant into a new company to which the current assets and workers who operate the electrical installation were incorporated. It will be in this company that Masaveu will take a stake of up to 50%. The two partners have committed to maintaining the conditions of the entire workforce that works in the complex. This was confirmed personally to the workers yesterday morning by the CEO of EDP Spain during a meeting to announce the change in ownership in the facility and the investment plan planned for group 2, which this newspaper reported yesterday.
The 50/50 association between EDP and Masaveu brings benefits for both groups. EDP is immersed in an ambitious offensive to transform its five traditional generation plants in the Iberian Peninsula (four in Spain and one in Portugal) to replace CO2-emitting technologies with new clean sources, which requires multimillion-dollar investments. Since the announcement of its plans for Asturias, EDP had already said that for its projects in Aboño, Soto de Ribera and offshore wind it could incorporate partners that contribute to the large mobilization of resources that is required. By involving Masaveu, it builds even more loyalty among a reference shareholder of the multinational (the largest after the Chinese group CTG) and with a relevant client such as Masaveu’s various manufacturing sites in Asturias.
For Masaveu it means expanding its more than century-old presence in the energy sector, which dates back to the origins of the Ovetense Popular Society (1899). Its incorporation into Hidroeléctrica del Cantábrico, predecessor of the current EDP España, occurred in 1939 when Hidrocantábrico absorbed Popular Ovetense. The involvement in Aboño will allow it to participate directly in the future era of hydrogen – it has plans to decarbonize its cement plants – and reinforce the industrial dimension of the group. Masaveu, the largest industrial and financial conglomerate with Asturian capital, has been and is the owner of investments in wind and solar energy in the Iberian Peninsula and the United States. EDP’s alliance with Asturian capital also reinforces the commitment to permanence and continuity of the large energy poles of the region after the closure of the Lada (Iberdrola) and Soto de la Barca (Naturgy) thermal power plants.
The ratings
The Government of Asturias described as “very positive” the agreement between EDP and Masaveu to transform the Aboño thermal power plant, “which will allow progress in the decarbonization of the regional industry,” said Nieves Roqueñí, Minister of Ecological Transition, Industry and Economic Development. . In the opinion of the counselor, this agreement “is a clear example of how the ecological transition will also allow us to reindustrialize Asturias in a different way, while reinforcing the development of EDP’s hydrogen valley in Aboño, the most mature project for the production of hydrogen for industry”. Regarding the conversion of group 2 of Aboño for the use of natural gas, Roqueñí valued that the strategic nature of this facility is maintained within the Spanish energy system as “fundamental infrastructure for the supply of electricity.”
The president of the Asturian Federation of Businesses (Fade), María Calvo, expressed the employers’ satisfaction for “the continuity of Aboño with a project that is a very good transition solution between coal and hydrogen.” “We must also value,” she said, “the involvement of an Asturian group, the Masaveu group, in a project that helps guarantee the energy independence of our industry, which is increasingly important.”
A key power plant for the region’s electricity supply in the face of the slow development of renewables
Pablo Castaño
The Aboño thermal power plant is the main engine of electricity generation in Asturias, a region with a high concentration of energy-intensive industries that require a reliable supply. The blackout of the Aboño coal-fired thermoelectric groups 1 and 2, planned by EDP for 2025 to comply with its decarbonization plans, threatened to destabilize the region’s electrical system if renewable generation facilities did not arrive in time to replace the more than 900 megawatts of installed thermal power or the electric transportation network was reinforced – pending for years – to bring energy from other regions. In addition, the Aboño plant consumes steel gases from ArcelorMittal and if the thermal power plant is closed they would go into the atmosphere. With the decision of EDP and Masaveu to prolong the life of the thermal plant beyond 2025 with the transformation of group 2 for the consumption of natural gas and steel gases, time is gained to address the energy transition. Although coal is no longer competitive in price to form part of the energy mix, the Aboño plant continues to enter the system many days, according to sources from Red Eléctrica de España, due to resolution of technical restrictions.
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