Power to your elbow
Desalination plant is finally connected to high-voltage network
THE COMPLETION of works to ensure that Torrevieja’s €300 million desalination plant can produce double the amount of water supplied in previous years has been celebrated by Socialist party (PSOE) deputy for Alicante province, Herick Campos.
He explained that the plant – which is the largest of its kind in Europe – is now connected to the national grid.
It was constructed during the rule of PSOE president José Luis Zapatero, who ran Spain from 2004 to 2011.
Sr Zapatero’s policy to provide water for drought-stricken south-east Spain centred on building a network of desalination plants on the coast.
The most expensive of these, in Torrevieja, was all but completed when Sr Zapatero was ousted from power in December 2011 by Mariano Rajoy’s Partido Popular (PP).
However, the PP had a different policy for tackling shortages, preferring to rely on water transfers from rivers in areas which usually have more abundant rainfall.
As a result, the plant in Torrevieja was not put into operation in 2012 and the expensive infrastructure stood idle.
Sr Campos claimed that it only started to produce water when the government was forced to launch emergency measures for drought in the Segura basin in 2015.
“Due to the cuts which the PP introduced, the plant was not provided with an adequate electricity supply,” he explained.
“This meant that it was only able to produce 40 cubic hectometres (hm3) of water a year.”
Sr Campos noted that initially the plant should have been able to supply 80 hm3 for the surrounding area, which could be extended to a maximum of 120 hm3.
In the following the years, the worsening drought forced the government’s hand again and the PP decided to install the infrastructure needed to increase production to 80hm3.
According to Sr Campos, the national electricity company had to construct a long supply line to connect it to the national grid. He noted that this has now been completed and will also allow them to take the desalination plant to full capacity (120hm3) ‘in the future’.
Sr Campos said national water company ACUAMED is currently working on this extension.
He added: “Even functioning at less than half gas, the desalination plant was able to prevent cuts in water supply in 2015 and 2016 in Alicante province and Murcia, in particular in coastal areas.”
The deputy also claimed the PP had failed to connect the plant up with some of the principal water networks in Alicante province, particularly for the farmers who use the Tajo-Segura river transfer infrastructure.