i-DE, Iberdrola España's distributor, and the Government of La Rioja will invest €80,000 in the adaptation of 45 electrical supports in birdlife protection areas
- The actions are part of the framework collaboration agreement between both entities, which has been in place for 27 years to reduce bird accidents with electrical lines
The General Director of Natural Environment and Landscape, Ignacio Sáenz de Urturi, and the representative of i-DE, Iberdrola España's distributor, Carlos Sobrino, signed today, the 16th, the agreement outlining the actions to be carried out in 2025 regarding electrical line modification projects to protect birdlife. The total budget for the actions is €80,000, which will be funded 50% by the Government of La Rioja and 50% by i-DE Redes Eléctricas Inteligentes.
These measures are part of the most recent triennial agreement signed by both entities in 2024, aimed at adapting electrical supports to improve birdlife protection by implementing actions to prevent bird incidents with electrical lines in the so-called "protection zones."
In this context, and once the regional government has completed the necessary studies to determine priority action areas, the aerial lines for intervention in 2025 have been selected. Thus, within this year, actions will be carried out on the Sorzano-Sojuela line, with 12 supports to be adapted; on the Cihuri diversion, where 15 supports will be adapted; on the Agua de Ausejo water intake diversion, with 10 electrical supports to be adapted; and on the Bodegas Toloza diversion, with 8 supports to be intervened. In total, 45 electrical supports will be adapted in 2025. The works are expected to be completed before November 30.
i-DE Redes Eléctricas has designed a catalog of improvement actions for supports based on their configuration, such as covering the different phases and connections, increasing safety distance by changing insulators to extend the chain, providing pole-type insulators, replacing crossbars with special ones designed to protect birds, installing anti-nesting devices, and other measures.
More than 250 supports in three years in birdlife protection areas of La Rioja
The triennial agreement signed by both entities last year aims to adapt more than 250 electrical supports in La Rioja's birdlife protection zones over three years, adjusting high-voltage lines according to Royal Decree 1432/2008, and following the priorities set by the regional government based on their knowledge and experience regarding the birdlife zones and habitats in the region, as well as the impact of electrical lines on them.
With this information, Iberdrola España’s distributor will apply the most suitable bird protection measures for each case. Moreover, Ignacio Sáenz de Urturi pointed out that “the company commits to adapting, whenever necessary, the five nearest high-voltage line supports it owns to any area where incidents involving birds listed as vulnerable or endangered are detected.”
This new agreement continues the work that has been carried out for the past 27 years between the Government of La Rioja and the Iberdrola Group to implement preventive and corrective measures to reduce bird accidents with electrical lines, with the aim of protecting threatened bird species. “Through this agreement, over its 27 years, more than €2.3 million have been invested in line corrections, 151 electrical lines have been addressed, 1,668 supports have been modified, and 628 spans have been marked to avoid bird accidents, covering more than 388 kilometers of electrical lines,” he stated.
For his part, Carlos Sobrino, representative of i-DE Redes Eléctricas Inteligentes, emphasized that “in 2024, i-DE carried out a total of 41 interventions in the Rioja region, both in Special Protection Areas for Birds (ZEPAs) and other sites, modifying a total of 352 supports, with an investment of over €580,000.”
La Rioja was one of the first regions in the country to establish a regulatory framework for electrical lines to protect birdlife in 1998, only behind Andalusia, Navarre, and Extremadura. To implement the goals of this regulation, the regional government and Iberdrola Spain signed the first collaboration agreement that same year, and since then, both organizations have worked on surveying and inventorying dangerous lines and correcting them, co-financing these actions in these areas by 50%.
The actions funded by this agreement focus on adapting supports installed before the indicated date, with the goal that, in the short term, the entire electrical distribution network in La Rioja will no longer present a risk to birdlife.
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