Endesa
Profile
Electric utility Endesa, the largest power provider in Spain, was originally owned by the state. Privatization began in 1988, as a condition imposed by the European Union for Spain to become a member state. Today it is owned by Enel, another former state-owned electric utility based in Rome, Italy. Endesa has often been criticized for its role in Spain’s high levels of energy poverty where some 11 percent of people cannot afford to heat their homes properly, one of the highest levels in Europe. Endesa was fined, alongside Naturgy, for manipulating electricity prices between October 2016 and January 2017, coinciding with a peak in demand due to cold weather.
Endesa’s dam building in South America has caused devastating social and environmental harm such as at São Luiz do Tapajós, Brazil; the Bio Bio Watershed in Chile; El Quimbo in Colombia; El Chaparral in El Salvador; and Palo Viejo in Guatemala. The company has also become a target of protests by environmental groups, fish workers and residents over the social conflict and environmental damage caused by the Bocamina Thermoelectric Plant, in southern Chile.
Nuclear, fossil-fuels, hydroelectric, and renewable resource power plants.
Endesa was profiled as part of the report "Green" Multinationals Exposed: How the Energy Transition is Being Hijacked by Corporate Interests.
Violations
Violation data is still being gathered for Endesa at this time.
Stories
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- Green but ignored? The irrelevance of television advertisements on
energy sustainability in Spain and its impact on consumer
perceptions by Ana Beriain Bañares, Miguel F. Santos Silva, Sergio Rodríguez Rodríguez (2023) - Teachers in the spotlight: influence strategies of Spanish companies in the educational system by Daniel Turienzo, Miriam Prieto, Jesus Manso and Bianca Thoilliez (2022)
- COP25: Bankrolled by Big Polluters by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) (2019)
- How Europe’s biggest polluters became their own regulators by Greenpeace (2015)
- Locked in the past: why Europe's big energy companies fear change by Greenpeace (2014)
- Corporate Conquistadors: How corporations both drive and profit from climate destruction by Transnational Institute (TNI), Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and the Democracy Center (2014)
- Enel, coal costs one death a day by Greenpeace (2012)
- In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects, and Globalization by Mario Blaser, Harvey A. Feit, and Glenn McRae (2004)
- Water, Land and Labour: The Impacts of Forced Privatization in Vulnerable Communities by the Halifax Initiative and the Social Justice Committee (2003)
- The Pehuenche, the World Bank Group and ENDESA S.A. violations of Human Rights in the Pangue and Ralco Dam Projects on the Bío-Bío River, Chile by the Committee for Human Rights/American Anthropological Association (1998)
Activism
Spain: More than a hundred residents of Iznalloz protest at the Endesa gate due to power cuts in the middle of a cold wave
El Independiente de Granada | January 25, 2023
Residents of Iznalloz have gathered this Wednesday in front of the Endesa headquarters in Granada since they maintain that "with temperatures of up to minus five degrees, living without electricity violates our rights."... The protest is part of a collective of demands by the Platform against Power Outages...
Spain: 'Fed Up Neighborhoods' in Seville delivers a thousand complaints to Endesa over power outages
El Diario | August 25, 2022
The inter-district platform of Barrios Hartos de Sevilla (Fed Up Neighborhoods of Seville) held a rally this Thursday in front of Endesa's commercial headquarters, located on Luis Montoto street, where they have delivered "almost a thousand complaints" from residents affected by the supply cuts to Endesa.
Spain: Fuel poverty groups participate at ENDESA shareholders' meeting
Economía Solidaria | April 29, 2022
Alianza contra la Pobreza Energética (Alliance Against Fuel Poverty) and Fundación Finanzas Éticas (Financial Ethics Foundation) are asking the company on behalf of affected groups if there is a willingness to support the most vulnerable households in the face of rising prices...
Spain: The Extinction Rebellion movement strips naked in front of Endesa's stand at COP25
Público | December 7, 2019
The group, originally from the United Kingdom, has interrupted the stand of the electricity company with messages engraved on their bodies, such as "You are not green", "Stop greenwashing " or "Money or life". The activists have come blindfolded in solidarity with the anonymous and invisible struggle of the local collectives.
In Spain, indigenous people from Oaxaca denounce Spanish wind companies for stealing their land
CBS News | April 24, 2018
Bettina Cruz, Assembly of the Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Defense of Land and Territory: "They are mainly Spanish companies such as Unión Fenosa-Gas Natural, Endesa, Gamesa, Iberdrola, Acciona, Euliatec (...) They arrive with this promise of development, employment, modernization, and yet what they are causing is the opposite for us".
Catalonia: Demonstration of support for residents that Endesa is taking to court for non-payment
X. Rodriguez | Segre | October 16, 2017
A hundred people, according to the organizers, demonstrated yesterday in front of the La Torre de Capdella power plant to show their support for the 4 residents whom Endesa has taken to court for non-payment of electricity bills.
Spain: Break Free Action at Endesa in Madrid
Pedro Armestre | Greenpeace Media | March 30, 2017
In Madrid, activists have gathered at the Endesa headquarters with dozens of black balloons and banners that read: "Endesa Contaminates. You Pay".
Controversial dams on 5 Chilean rivers scrapped after years of campaign
Shreya Dasgupta | Mongabay | September 7, 2016
Spanish energy company Endesa announced on August 30 that they were returning the water rights of the five Chilean rivers to the state because its hydroelectric projects were not viable.
Indigenous Brazilians protest in Austria against hydroelectric dam on the Tapajós River
R7 | March 30, 2016
The São Luiz project, estimated at more than R$ 30 billion, is currently being studied by a group of companies formed by Eletrobras, Eletronorte, GDF Suez, EDF, Neoenergia, Camargo Corrêa, Endesa Brasil, Cemig and Copel.
Chilean farmers protest against Endesa because of the the use of dam water
Hispagua Sistema Español de Información sobre el Agua | May 25, 2012
A group of Chilean farmers yesterday blocked the country's main longitudinal highway to protest against a judicial decision that will allow the electric company Endesa Chile to extract one hundred million cubic meters of water from the Laguna del Maule.
Controversial El Quimbo dam risks becoming 'Colombia’s Belo Monte'
Amy Lieberman | The Ecologist | March 16, 2012
A growing movement of fishing communities, miners and farmers are stepping up their campaign against the dam - one of dozens of hydroelectric projects looming across Colombia - despite violent repression of some protests.
Chile Indigenous end protest against hydro-power dam
Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy | September 22, 2003
The four Pehuenche Indigenous women, Endesa Chile, and government representatives signed an agreement Tuesday after a month of intense talks in which Endesa agreed to increase the monetary compensation for the women and their families and the government offered them additional land.
International:
- Access Info Europe
- Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
- Extinction Rebellion
- Greenpeace International
- IndustriALL
Spain:
- Alliance Against Energy Poverty
- Andalusian Union of Workers
- Association for Human Rights of Andalusia (APDHA)
- Ethical Finances Foundation
- FACUA - Consumers in Action
- Fed Up Neighborhoods - Interdistrict Neighborhood Platform of Seville
- Galician Inter-Union Confederation (CIG)
- General Union of Workers (UGT)
- Independent Energy Union (SIE)
- Platform for a New Energy Model
- Those Affected by Endesa
- Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (CCOO)
Chile:
- Action Group for the Biobío
- Aisen Life Reserve
- Codemat Tarapacá
- Committee for the Defense of Fauna and Flora (CODEFF)
- Defenders of the Spirit of Patagonia
- Ecosistemas
- Mapuche Indigenous Groups
- Patagonia without Dams
Other:
- Alliance of Tides and Social Movements - Catalonia
- Corporate Accountability - U.S.
- Forward Osan Penedès - Catalonia
- Halifax Initiative - Canada
- Sindeletro - Brazil
- The Democracy Center - U.S.
Privatization
Endesa, the stupid Spanish capitalism
Edmundo Fayanas Escuer | CCOO | November 2, 2014
The consequences of these privatizations are visible, higher energy prices, deterioration of service, layoffs of workers, more complaints from clients and where the financial elites continue to earn a lot of money at the expense of the poverty of the majority, those are their laws. of market.
Spain: Endesa chopped up: a plunder of the public or the history of a nonsense
Rodolfo Rieznik | El Diario | October 26, 2014
The operation is a plunder of Spanish citizens who financed Endesa's investments with the electricity tariff for 70 years. It was this investment that transformed Endesa into one of the largest business groups in Spain at the end of the last century.
& Lawsuits
Spain: The National Court ratifies a fine against Endesa for directing clients from the regulated market to the free market
Infobae | November 13, 2023
The National Court (AN) has ratified a fine of 5.5 million euros imposed by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) on Endesa Energía XXI - the group's regulated marketer - for directing its clients to the company's free marketing agency.
Spain: The directors of a company contracted by Endesa convicted for harassing young vulnerable clients
Público | September 5, 2023
The court ruled that DPS Consulting used an institutionalized system of intimidation. The Alliance Against the Energy Poverty has celebrated the ruling and has demanded that Endesa "decline from transferring to third parties the management of the debt of customers at risk of exclusion".
Spain: Granada continues to monitor the complaint to the European Parliament about power outages
La Vanguardia | January 15, 2023
He recalled that, from the opposition, the socialist municipal group has already brought numerous complaints to Endesa to the Prosecutor's Office demanding that it provide supply to all the residents who were paying for electricity without receiving it.
Portugal: Endesa changed contracts and prices without the customers' authorization. Now, it has been fined €360,000
Ana Sanlez | Observador | December 22, 2022
Endesa was fined €360,000 by the Energy Services Regulatory Entity (ERSE) for committing 92 infractions. At issue is the “violation of various rules relating to the commercial relationship with the customer, namely the change of supplier without the express authorization of the customer”, informed ERSE this Thursday.
Spain: Endesa charged for the death of a woman in Aroche due to a blackout
Diário de Huelva | October 11, 2022
The Seville-based law firm of Andrés Avelino Santos has just won a surprising lawsuit when the company Endesa Energía was sentenced to compensate a family for the death of a woman who suffered a fall in the middle of a blackout.
Spain: 16 million fine to Endesa for the blackout in Tenerife in 2020
El Periódico de la Energía | August 4, 2022
The Council of the Government of the Canary Islands has approved this Thursday the sanction decree regarding the July 2020 blackout in Tenerife, proposing a fine of 6 million euros for the electricity distributor and 10 million for the generator, which in both cases belong to Endesa.
The Spanish Competition Authority Imposes a €4.9 Million Fine on an Energy Grid And Utility Company for Providing Access to the Grid on More Favourable Terms to Its Own Downstream Business Than It Does to Rivals (Enel)
Concurrences | June 10, 2022
On 10 June 2022, the Spanish Competition Authority (“SCA”) found that Enel Green Power SL (“Enel”), and its parent company Endesa Generación SA (“Endesa”) infringed the Spanish national provision prohibiting abuses of dominant position by taking advantage of its dominant position in the market...
Spain: Endesa: fine of 5.5 million, the Enel stock suffers
Wall Street Italia | June 25, 2019
Due to misleading communications to its customers made during the winter campaigns of 2012-2013 and 2013-2014, the company Endesa, controlled by Enel, was fined 5.5 million euros by the Spanish Consob.
Spain: Competition fines Endesa 1.18 million euros for abuse of dominant position
Bank Inter | July 21, 2014
Endesa Distribución will have to pay a fine of 1.18 million euros for abusing its position in the electrical installations market. This has been ruled by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) which considers that the company took "undue charges" for the extension of networks between 2009 and 2012.
Endesa fined 26 million euros for the Argentine blackouts
La Sexta | January 4, 2014
Edesur, a subsidiary of the Spanish company Endesa, will have to pay 26 million euros for the power cuts in the last three weeks. The company blames the poor service on low rates.
Spain: The CNC imposes a fine on Endesa of 5.47 million euros
Bank Inter | June 12, 2012
The National Competition Commission (CNC) today imposed a fine of 5.47 million euros on Endesa for changing the contractual conditions of certain customers without their consent, according to a statement sent by the agency Spanish regulator.
Spain competition watchdog fines Endesa 23 mln eur
Reuters | February 22, 2012
The National Competition Council (CNC) said it fined Endesa’s distribution unit 14.97 million euros for using privileged information on clients requesting installations to target leading market players... The watchdog also fined Endesa 8.16 million euros for charging clients for installation when the company was required to do so at its own cost.
Environmental Impacts
Spain: Endesa will have to pay a fine of 15 million for the Ascó plant leak
B. Parera | El Confidencial | March 21, 2022
The National Court has just dismissed the appeal filed by Endesa Generación, SA, against the sanction imposed in 2008 on Endesa Generación by the Ministry of Industry for seriously infringing nuclear safety at the Ascó I plant.
Academic Washing? How Spain's Energy Sector Cleans Its Image At Universities
Dani Dominguez | World Crunch | December 20, 2021
At Comillas University, for example, the companies sponsor the Module of Energy and Innovation, financed by Iberdrola; the Module of Family and Disability and the Module of Social Impact, in which the Repsol Foundation participates, as well as the Module of Energy and Poverty, run by Naturgy and Endesa.
Spanish electricity company sued for pollution of drinking water in Galicia
In Spain News | May 28, 2021
Once again, one of Spain’s largest energy companies, Endesa, is in a bad light. This time it is the Spanish region of Galicia that holds the company liable for pollution of a river. A river from which drinking water is supplied to 25,000 people.
Spain’s Endesa power firm sued over electrocution of birds
Stephen Burgen | The Guardian | April 16, 2021
Landmark case says thousands of birds including endangered eagles die needlessly each year.
Spain: Endesa, accused of 'greenwashing' for its sponsorship of COP25
Marketing News | March 12, 2019
The twenty-fifth climate summit (COP25) kicked off yesterday in Madrid with an emergency call towards climate action and a commitment from Brussels to propose the first transition law towards climate neutrality. But also with a controversy surrounding one of its key sponsors: Endesa.
Chile: Environmental Court condemns Endesa as responsible for environmental damage in Lota and Coronel
Tercer Tribunal Ambiental de Chile | December 31, 2018
The Valdivia Environmental Court, with jurisdiction from Ñuble to Magallanes, condemned Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA (Endesa) as responsible for air pollution of the communes of Lota and Coronel, in the lawsuit filed by more than 900 people and organizations from both communes, for the operation of the Bocamina Thermoelectric Power Plant.
Brazil's environment agency Ibama suspends licensing of São Luiz do Tapajós dam
Ibama | April 26, 2016
Ibama suspended last Tuesday (04/19) the environmental licensing of the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric project, in Pará.
Chile fines Endesa with USD 7.6 million for environmental non-compliance
Swiss Info | August 12, 2014
The Bocamina thermoelectric plant, owned by Endesa and located in southern Chile, was sanctioned with a fine of 4,378 million pesos (about 7.6 million dollars) for environmental non-compliance, reported the Superintendence of the Environment.
Chilean court rules for fishermen in Endesa coal plant case
The Medi Telegraph | January 10, 2014
Chile’s supreme court has ruled in favor of local fishermen who say Endesa Chile’s Bocamina coal-fired facility kills marine life and pollutes ocean water, but it said halting its operations was a decision for environmental authorities.
Chile: Coal Plants Under Fire
Daniela Estrada | Global Issues | August 27, 2010
Controversial plans to build the Barrancones thermoelectric plant near a protected area in the northern Chilean region of Coquimbo were cancelled Friday, but not before reopening debate on other projects for polluting coal-fired power stations.
Spain: Generators accused of putting profit before safety
Graham Keeley | The Guardian | August 29, 2008
Iberdrola and Endesa, two of Spain's leading electricity companies, have been accused of cutting costs at nuclear power stations at the expense of safety.
Spain: Endesa nuclear plant fined €1.6 million for cooling faults
New York Times | August 2, 2006
A nuclear plant owned by Endesa in northeastern Spain was fined €1.6 million Wednesday, the largest penalty ever for a Spanish atomic generator, for mishandling a fault with its cooling system last year.
& Relations
Spain: The Supreme Court orders Endesa to restore 'free' electricity and other benefits to retirees
Juan Cruz Peña | El Confidencial | July 13, 2023
Several former employees of the company found a loophole and got the Supreme Court to determine that the company must restore all the social benefits that were withdrawn from them four years ago.
Spain: Endesa and workers will negotiate the new agreement in an open union 'war'
Antonio Martos Villar | La Información | June 23, 2023
The CCOO and SIE unions accuse the company's management and the UGT union of starting negotiations by counting mandates of expired union representatives and reducing the members of the board to nine to "give an advantage" to UGT.
Spain: The unions criticize Endesa's decision not to extend remote working to all its workers
Raquel Navarro Perez | Economía Digital | May 26, 2022
The Endesa CCOO union criticizes the company's decision to not accept and "not even assess" any of the proposals that they have sent in order to increase the number of workers who can take advantage of remote working.
Spain: The staff of Endesa's subsidiaries will demonstrate to demand job guarantees and a fair transition
Confederación Intersindical Galega | June 8, 2021
The coordinator of the personnel of the industries of the Pontes thermal power plant has planned a demonstration for this Thursday, June 10, to demand a fair energy transition, which includes offering job guarantees.
Spain: Endesa opens an investigation into the "tragic accident" at the Cíjara power plant in which a worker died
20 minutos | November 21, 2019
Through a statement, Endesa states that it feels the "pain of the family of the deceased colleague" after the accident at the plant, which occurred as the company was reviewing the facility's fire prevention system...
Spanish union leaders occupy Endesa offices
IndustriALL | October 22, 2019
Union officials have occupied the offices of Spanish energy company Endesa to protest against the company undermining rights and benefits by failing to conduct collective bargaining in good faith.
Spain: Naturgy and Endesa used ten of their plants to cheat in order to increase the price of electricity "consciously and deliberately"
Carlos Segovia | El Mundo | May 23, 2019
Two of the main electricity companies in Spain deceived the system with ten combined cycle plants for four months to raise the price of electricity in the winter of 2017 "consciously and deliberately", according to reports from the National Commission of Competition Markets...
Spain: Endesa retirees and early retirees mobilize in Seville to stop the company from withdrawing their "social benefits"
La Vanguardia | September 17, 2019
Some 700 people, according to the conveners, have joined a mobilization called in Seville on Tuesday by a platform of retirees, early retirees, widows and orphans of Endesa workers so that the company does not withdraw "part" of their salary "in the form of social benefits" that they have "enjoyed for more than 100 years".
Endesa imported "blood coal" from Colombian mines to Spain between 2010 and 2017
Antonio Villarreal & Daniele Grasso | El Confidencial | May 27, 2018
Enel, owner of the Spanish electricity company, recognized this at its last shareholders meeting. It worked with two Colombian companies accused of using paramilitaries against miners.
Financials
Click here for the latest list.
Political Influence
Endesa is being investigated internationally for payments to Chilean politicians in the central Neltume case
Mapu Express | September 21, 2016
A US$3.5 million donation to Chilean politicians during the 2013 campaign is being investigated, the newspaper La Tercera published on September 16, 2016, whose investigation is based on a publication published by the newspaper El Ciudadano in 2015.
Spain: Soria copied Endesa's attempt to prohibit self-consumption of electricity for the most vulnerable customers
Antonio M. Vélez | El Diario | May 12, 2016
After protests from various sectors, the Ministry backed down and ended up allowing customers with a social bonus or regulated electricity rate to self-consume.
Import & Export Data
ImportYeti - Shipping Tracking Tool - Bill of ladings are public information that are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti's goal is to solve that problem.
- ImportYeti profile of Endesa
Spain: Costa del Sol residents continue fight against Endesa electricity substation plans
Eugenio Cabezas | Sur in English | August 21, 2023
Holding banners with the slogan 'don't play with our health', around 120 protesters gathered in the Torrox Park residential area last Wednesday 16 August, where Endesa has begun work on the construction of a new electricity substation.
Victory in Chile! Dams Scrapped on Five Rivers
Sarah Bardeen | International Rivers | August 31, 2016
... Endesa announced yesterday it has relinquished all claims to the water on the Futaleufú, Puelo, Chillan, Bardón and Huechún rivers... These dams had met with strong local opposition, both because of their social and environmental impacts and the effect they would have on the tourism industry.
Brazil: Major Amazon dam opposed by tribes fails to get environmental licence
John Vidal | The Guardian | August 5, 2016
Plans to build a giant hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon rainforest have been halted by Brazil’s environmental protection agency because of mounting concerns about the fate of indigenous communities and wildlife living in the area.
Chile drops hugely controversial mega-dam project in wild Patagonia
Jeremy Hance | Mongabay | June 12, 2014
One of the world’s most controversial mega-dam projects met its likely end this week when Chile’s Committee of Ministers voted to cancel the permits for the HidroAysén project... The companies behind the dams—Colbún, a Chilean company, and Endesa Chile, a local subsidiary of the Italian energy company, Endesa—have 30 days to appeal the decision.
Procurement
Portugal: Controversy did not stop government contracts. Yet again, Endesa wins the biggest contract to supply electricity to the government worth 254 million
Ana Sigh | Observador | January 16, 2023
Endesa is, again, the main supplier of electricity to the government and public entities, winning three lots in the contractual procedure for joint supplies with a value of 253.5 million euros.
Portugal: Endesa signed contracts worth almost 100 million with public entities this year
Mariana Espírito Santo | Eco Sapo | August 2, 2022
State payments to Endesa will have to be validated by João Galamba. Public contracts signed with the electric company reach almost 100 million euros.
Portugal: The 3 billion announced for energy mainly serves large companies that allow speculation to continue
Partido Comunista Português | October 13, 2022
Faced with the spiral of speculation promoted by the large energy companies, the government is choosing not to implement measures to control margins and price fixing, which prevent the brutal increases in energy prices, borne by consumers, and which feed the millionaire profits of EDP, Endesa, Iberdrola, Galp and others.