CALVIA CHOSEN FOR POWER LINK UP

Staff reporter: THE undersea electricity cables, linking Majorca with the Peninsula and the island of Ibiza, will have their entrance and exit junctions located at Santa Ponsa in the municipality of Calvià. The Balearic government decision was spearheaded by Josep Juan Cardona of the Energy ministry. An Energy director, Jaume Sureda, has confirmed the choice of Santa Ponsa as a connection point for the cables uniting Majorca with the Peninsula and Ibiza. The Peninsula link will mean the Balearics will no longer be isolated in terms of its electricity supply as the mainland link-up will enable the islands to become part of the national electricity distribution network. The junction on the Peninsula for the undersea cable will probably be at Tarragona although Valencia has not been discounted. Following the link-up, the level of energy that will become available to the Islands will measure 300 megawatts (more than a quarter of the total power currently available on Majorca, 1'170 megawatts). The secondary link between Majorca and Ibiza will provide the Balearic Islands with its own integral electricity network, since the Majorca-Minorca section (with its own connecting cable) and Ibiza-Formentera (also with its own link) are now on separate grids. Although Tarragona is being talked of as the starting point for the undersea cable, the option of a Valencia to Majorca connection hasn't been discounted at all. It has to be taken into account that sea depths are at their greatest between the south-east coast of the Peninsula and the Balearics. Regional government is planning that the mainland to Majorca cable connection be completed by 2009. Nevertheless, prior to that date, it is envisaged that the link between Majorca and Ibiza will already have come “on line” by 2007. There are preliminary suggestions that a cable could be set up between Ibiza and the south-east coast of the Peninsula in 2011, which would complete a triangle of electricity cabling between Tarragona, the Balearics and the Community of Valencia. According to Sureda, Santa Ponsa has been chosen because of its ideal geographic location for receiving the cable from the Peninsula and at the same time, to be an interchange for the link with Ibiza. Furthermore, conditions and currents in the bay of Santa Ponsa are favourable for setting up cabling junctions. Another factor to add, said Sureda, is that a local sub station near Santa Ponsa provides an easy point from which to distribute the 300 megawatts into the power supply network across the islands.Santa Ponsa, specifically in the northern section of the Bay, mean that no other energy-related infrastructure needs to be built. The cables themselves will be high tension with a diameter of 35 centimetres, like many others running over our land”, he said. In practice, each link-up will consist of two cables, to accommodate electricity running in each direction. With regard to the planned undersea gas pipeline, which would bring gas to the Balearics for conversion into electric energy, this is also planned for inauguration in 2007. Jaume Sureda affirmed that “we are going to be limited to the site stipulated under the Energy plan” which proposed Sant Joan de Déu as an incoming terminus point for natural gas from the Peninsula”. The pipeline will have its starting base in Oliva in Valencia, or in Dénia in Alicante. In spite of belonging to different provinces, both localities are situated only 30 kilometres away from each other. Undeterred by local resident protest, Sant Joan de Déu, proposed by the previous Balearic government under the Socialist For the Energy director, “the incoming and outgoing undersea electric cables in coalition, remains the only chosen site for receiving incoming natural gas from the Peninsula.