The main energies are launched for the second large electricity contract of Adif, which allows lighting and providing energy to passenger stations, freight terminals and other railway facilities of the public entity. At stake are 158.6 million euros, a figure that seems small when compared to the traction energy tender —valued at 1,850.7 million euros—, but in which the three large Spanish electricity companies have also taken an interest: Endesa , Iberdrola and EDP.
Adif Alta Velocidad has opened the first envelopes of the public bidding process that will guarantee that the electricity supply reaches its facilities between April 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025, with the option to extend it for another year. After passing the first requirements of the procedure, the three initial bidders thus move on to the direct negotiation phase with the public manager. Those chosen are also immersed in the final phase of the traction energy contract, the largest tender of the public entity and the true objective of all of them.
Since 2019, all the energy it acquires In 2021, the public company’s facilities consumed 241 gigawatt-hours (GWH) of electricity, a figure that they estimate will grow to 248 GWh in the final calculation of 2022. To put it in context with the another contract, train traction consumed a total of 2,106 GWh in 2021 and is expected to rise to 2,414 GWh in 2022 due to the increase in traffic and passengers.
Prices indexed to the daily market
The manager of the railway network has opted to index its prices to the OMIE daily market according to “cost efficiency” criteria, although it reserves the possibility of agreeing on fixed prices during certain periods of time. Adif chose to group the electricity supply points into three batches in order to unify access rates and standardize market costs and contracted power levels.
The process also includes the possibility that the electric companies set a mixed price, where a part of the supply has a fixed rate and another is indexed to the daily market. In this modality, the supply points (CUPS) of each lot were divided into two groups and each of them would be assigned a different price, one fixed and the other indexed to the daily market, although this was not the option finally chosen.
For this new contract, which will last for 2 years and 8 months, the estimated total consumption is around 720 GWh. The final cost will come from factors such as actual consumption, the offers received and the one that is finally selected, the price set by the Iberian market operator (OMIE) or the price coverages that are negotiated in the OMIP market. The tender does not include the costs of access to the transmission and distribution networks, a procedure that Adif will agree directly with the distributors.
All pending traction megacontract
While the process to award the energy for the facilities progresses, the large energy companies are still waiting for the negotiation of the tender to provide the traction energy, valued at 1,850.7 million euros, to close. This contract has the same validity period -from April 2023 to the end of 2025-, but a clause allows it to be extended for two more years in case the manager needs to activate an extension. Offers from the trading companies Acciona Green Energy and Total Energies were added to the offers from Endesa, Iberdrola and EDP.
