Work to dismantle the 66 kV line between Corralejo and Matas Blancas to begin in early 2027

The Fuerteventura Island Council and representatives of Red Eléctrica have met as part of the roadmap for dismantling the former 66 kV electricity line between Corralejo and Matas Blancas.

The president of the Fuerteventura Island Council, Lola García, and its councillor for Spatial Planning, Nereida Calero, met Daniel Pérez Varela, Red Eléctrica’s director of Infrastructure in the Canary Islands; Ainara Irigoyen, Redeia’s delegate in the Canary Islands; and Pablo García Celáa, the project director for the dismantling. The meeting aimed to share the information available and learn more about the process, which is determined primarily by the environmental and construction criteria applicable in each area.

Lola García said: “This is the largest dismantling of an electricity line ever undertaken in the Archipelago. It is therefore important to hold coordination meetings to finalise its removal, now that Red Eléctrica has awarded the work, and to ensure it is carried out with the utmost respect for the environment.”

García also said the Island Council was committed to providing “the fullest possible administrative cooperation, with the support of the town councils as well, to speed up the authorisations and permits needed to ensure the removal goes ahead as planned”.

Nereida Calero highlighted the importance “not only of restoring the land occupied by the line to its natural state because of its impact on the landscape, biodiversity and our natural resources, but, above all, of allowing the residents affected to regain use of their land after waiting for so long”.

At the meeting, Red Eléctrica’s representatives announced that, in coordination with the Island Council, work to dismantle the 66 kV line between Corralejo and Matas Blancas will begin early next year, now that the administrative process for authorising the line’s decommissioning and dismantling has been completed.

The line will be dismantled under a set of preventive and corrective environmental measures, to minimise the impact of removing the electricity line on its surroundings and restore the land to its original state.

Before work begins, Red Eléctrica will inform property owners in coordination with the Island Council and other administrations. The work will last 18 months and affect different areas of the municipalities of La Oliva, Puerto del Rosario, Antigua, Tuineje and Pájara.

The contract to dismantle the 66 kV line between Corralejo and Matas Blancas has already been awarded. The work will involve removing 352 pylons and their conductor cables; slackening and removing the conductor and earth wires; dismantling the structures; gathering the conductors, earth wires and insulator strings; demolishing the foundations; removing surplus civil-engineering materials; and, where applicable, removing the bases of the former pylons.