- The Seville City Council, through its urban planning department, and Endesa have signed a collaboration agreement for the allocation of space required to install new infrastructure. This €2 million investment will deliver a total power capacity of 24,000 kVA —equivalent to the energy consumption of nine hospitals like Virgen Macarena.
- Through these new measures, Endesa has deployed 25 new transformer stations over the past three years in areas most affected by fraud. As a result, it has quadrupled energy capacity in neighbourhoods where there has been no new housing development or industrial/commercial activity.
- Endesa’s initiative aims to mitigate the massive fraud problem that overloads the grid, affects all customers, and caused five fires in local distribution grids last year alone.
Through e-distribución, its grid subsidiary, Endesa has signed an agreement with Seville’s urban planning department to install 12 new transformer stations in neighbourhoods most affected by grid overload caused by energy theft.
Following the recent ratification of this agreement, Endesa’s technicians have already begun installing the new infrastructure. This aims to triple or even quadruple power capacity in areas where there has been no increase in legitimate demand (e.g., new housing or industrial/business growth), but rather an excessive surge in consumption due to the proliferation of indoor marijuana plantations —each consuming as much energy as 80 homes operating 24/7, 365 days a year.
The new infrastructure, approved by the Seville City Council, will be distributed as follows: 8 new transformer stations in Cerro Amate district, 2 new stations in Este-Torreblanca district, 1 station in Sur district, and 1 station in Norte district. Each facility will house two 1,000 kVA transformers, providing enough capacity to supply 800 new connections.
Additionally, medium- and low-voltage cabling will be installed and channelled to integrate the stations into the grid. In total, more than 81 kilometres of cabling will be deployed to bring these facilities online. Once operational, they will provide the energy capacity equivalent to nine hospitals like Virgen Macarena.
These initiatives represent a €2+ million investment, building on previous efforts. In fact, three years ago —in 2022— Endesa installed 13 new transformer stations across Torreblanca, Padre Pío, La Plata, Polígono Sur, Su Eminencia, and Ciudad Jardín. At that time, the upgrades helped alleviate grid overload caused by the excessive energy consumption of indoor marijuana farms, which are operated by a few but impact entire neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, the situation has deteriorated again over the years, with grid saturation increasing despite no rise in official energy contracts.
Last summer, five fires broke out in transformer stations in the most fraud-impacted areas —some of these stations had been installed just a year earlier. This highlighted the serious risks to infrastructure and public safety caused by overloads due to marijuana plantations and illegal grid tampering.
To address this issue affecting residents, Endesa is once again implementing the only technical solution within its control: increasing energy capacity. However, as proven before, this is not a definitive solution to a structural problem that requires collaborative efforts from all institutions and stakeholders to tackle the root cause: illegal marijuana plantations.
Endesa is already working on the first of the new transformer stations, located on calle Torre Albas (Torreblanca), where the structural frame has been installed. A team of 20 technicians is currently channelling cabling to bring the station online this June. Next, a new station will be installed on calle Vía Traiana, once again quadrupling capacity in that area.
In July, the casings for two of the eight stations planned for Cerro Amate will be delivered —one at Plaza Salvador Muñiz Soto and another on calle Acuario. The remaining stations in this district will be installed during the second half of the year. Additionally, Endesa plans to expand the capacity of an existing transformer station on calle Grulla. New stations under this agreement will also be deployed in the other districts included in the plan.
With this new reinforcement plan, combined with the one implemented three years ago, Endesa hopes to ease the widespread fraud linked to marijuana cultivation. The company also supports law enforcement in detecting these illegal farms. In the first four months of this year, Endesa has opened 72 cases related to marijuana plantations in Seville —an average of four cases per week. The main impact on residents is the industrial-level energy demand from these plantations.
When authorities take decisive action, energy loads drop immediately —by up to 90%. Consequently, this restores normal energy conditions in neighbourhoods where capacity is sufficient for four times the actual population.