Electric utility Endesa has announced a 100 million euro investment plan to stabilize the power grid in the Spanish province of Almería following summer blackouts.
The power company reported that massive electricity fraud from illegal indoor marijuana plantations is saturating neighborhood transformers and driving frequent power outages across coastal and urban districts.
Almería, a province located in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, relies heavily on agriculture, natural stone extraction, and seasonal tourism, all of which face mounting disruption from the failing electrical network.
Widespread outages hit coastal businesses
In the coastal town of Níjar, Mayor José Francisco Garrido demanded clear answers, real solutions, concrete investments, and fixed timelines from the utility provider.
Garrido said local merchants, hoteliers, business owners, and residents could not be asked to endure continuous power cuts every summer or accept the situation as normal.
He emphasized that successive blackouts, lasting several hours in some cases, have caused severe economic damage to commercial operations in the coastal area and near the Cabo de Gata Natural Park.
Although the Níjar Town Council expressed full readiness to collaborate in resolving the crisis, municipal officials stressed that every company and administration must fulfill its responsibilities. They urged Endesa to guarantee the legally required quality of electricity supply.
Overloaded transformers across the province
Power instability is not confined to Níjar, as intermittent supply interruptions have affected Santa Fe de Mondújar, Pechina, municipalities in the Almanzora Valley, the Lower Andarax area, and the El Zapillo district of Almería city.
While grid maintenance works and temporary demand spikes cause occasional disruptions, distribution company Endesa identified illegal power taps as the primary destabilizing factor.
To address local failures in the provincial capital, Almería Urban Planning Councilor Eloísa Cabrera led negotiations with the distributor to secure priority construction of the city's first five transformer centers.
Municipal technical assessments indicate that Almería city requires up to 15 new transformation centers to balance its energy map and protect against recurring power drops.
Cabrera confirmed that the initial five installations would serve as an urgent containment dam in the hardest-hit coastal and peripheral districts, beginning in Pescadería-La Chanca, Regiones, Ciudad Jardín, and El Zapillo.
She noted that active collaboration from the Spanish government sub-delegation and law enforcement forces would be necessary to dismantle the irregular connections overloading local power lines.
Impact of indoor marijuana farms
Providing technical context on behalf of Endesa's network subsidiary, e-distribución, Juan de la Cruz explained the scale of the power strain across Eastern Andalusia.
De la Cruz stated that company calculations show a single indoor marijuana plantation consumes as much electricity as a five-story residential building.
He explained that unmetered consumption from illegal crops saturates infrastructure far beyond its intended design capacity, triggering circuit protection systems and causing severe equipment breakdowns.
According to De la Cruz, grid failures rarely stem from routine maintenance issues or standard operational flaws.
Instead, he cited a structural rise in baseline energy demand, driven by population growth, the proliferation of household electrical appliances, and the expanding adoption of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles.
Grid strain threatens industrial growth
In response to sustained pressure from public authorities and local consumers, De la Cruz announced the multi-year 100 million euro investment package dedicated to Almería.
The funding will focus on network digitization, sensor installation, and structural resilience to shield grid infrastructure against illegal tampering and secure stable power distribution.
Business leaders warn that current capacity limits are already harming the broader regional economy. Cecilio Peregrín, president of the Business Confederation of Almería Province (ASEMPAL), warned that available power supplies have reached their technical ceiling, creating a direct barrier to industrial expansion.
Peregrín noted that reaching these distribution limits deters foreign investment and threatens key regional sectors, including logistics, natural stone production, and the agricultural supply industry.
He concluded that while the targeted neighborhood transformer plan is necessary, it remains insufficient unless accompanied by an ambitious expansion of the high-voltage grid to prevent operational strangulation across Almería businesses.
