Spanish Ministry of Economy and EIB to finance Naturgy with €870 million to reinforce and digitalise electricity grids

• The operation includes two loans for Naturgy's electricity grids in Spain: €520 million from the Regional Resilience Fund, and €350 million in European Investment Bank (EIB) financing.
• The investment will increase grid resilience and make supply more secure by building and reinforcing 2 300 km of electricity networks, with a direct impact on five of Spain's autonomous communities, mostly cohesion regions.
• The operation will help accelerate electrification of the economy and the integration of renewable energy to advance the energy transition.

The EIB, part of the EIB Group, and Spain's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business (through the Regional Resilience Fund) will provide €870 million in financing to Naturgy to support the energy company's investments to strengthen, upgrade and digitalise its distribution network in Spain.

This will support investments in energy security in five autonomous communities: Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Castile and León, Galicia and Madrid. All but Madrid are cohesion regions. The financing will enable investments in 2 300 km of network for both new construction and reinforcement, to expand the grid and make it more resilient, increase security of supply and integrate more energy from renewable sources.

The first of the loans has been signed, for a total of €520 million channelled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business through the Regional Resilience Fund (financed with NextGenerationEU funds under Spain's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan). The EIB is the ministry's strategic partner for implementation and management of the Regional Resilience Fund.

The second loan has been approved for a total of €350 million, with €200 million already signed. It will be financed entirely from the EIB's own resources.

Among other measures, the loans will be used to invest in automation, remote control and digitalisation in the grid, connecting new users and meeting increased demand, implementing security measures, reducing grid losses, and putting infrastructure underground and making it more compact.

The project will increase the resilience of Naturgy's entire distribution network in Spain, which has over 116 000 km of power lines. It will also increase security of supply in the face of recurring adverse natural phenomena, rising demand resulting from the electrification of the economy, and more electricity generation from renewable sources.

The arrangement also underscores the commitment of the EIB and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise to economic, social and territorial cohesion, with more than 80% of the total investment going to cohesion regions, where income per capita is below the EU average.

EIB support for electricity grids and storage

Investing in networks and storage systems is key to accelerating the energy transition and advancing electrification of the economy. In 2025, a record €11.6 billion of EIB financing went to electricity grid and storage system projects worldwide.

In Spain, the EIB Group devoted a record €1.9 billion in financing to grid investments in 2025 - a year in which one out of every two euros invested in Spanish grids came from EIB financing. The funds were allocated for digitalisation projects, smart meters, repairing damage caused by the DANA weather event, storage, and strengthening interconnection with Europe. Between 2021 and 2025, the EIB financed the construction or upgrade of 45 000 km of electricity networks in Spain (enough to circle the globe).

The Naturgy project supports the goals of the Spanish government's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and the EIB's climate action and cohesion objectives - two of the EIB Group's eight core strategic priorities set out in the EIB Group 2024-2027 Strategic Roadmap and the Climate Bank Roadmap phase 2 2026-2030. The operation is also part of the EIB's action plan to support REPowerEU, the programme to increase security and accelerate the energy transition by reducing EU dependence on fossil fuel imports.

Background information

EIB Group

The EIB Group is the financing arm of the European Union. Its shareholders are the 27 Member states, and it is one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world. In 2025, the EIB Group signed off €100 billion in new financing and advisory services for over 870 high-impact projects under eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, territorial cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, global partnerships and the savings and investments union.

Beyond long-term loans for large-scale infrastructure, the EIB Group crowds in private investment for high-risk innovative projects and businesses, with a growing role in Europe's markets for venture debt, venture capital, guarantees and securitisations.

With the support of the 27 EU governments, the European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB Group, has joined forces with institutional investors in a pan-European alliance to mobilise up to €80 billion for investment in innovative companies that are growing to become global leaders. This agreement will expand the reach and scale of the European Tech Champions Initiative. Since its creation three years ago, this highly successful programme has contributed to the establishment of 15 European mega-funds and the growth of 45 companies, including 12 unicorns.

In 2025, the EIB Group completed financing and investment operations in Spain totalling around €11 billion, which came alongside an additional €2.9 billion under the Regional Resilience Fund (NextGenerationEU loans).

Photos of the EIB Group management and headquarters, logo files and video B-roll for media use are available here. 

Regional Resilience Fund

The Regional Resilience Fund was created to facilitate access to NextGenerationEU loans from the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the autonomous communities, with the aim of boosting investments and developing projects in eight priority areas: social and affordable housing; urban renewal; transport and sustainable tourism; the energy transition; water and waste management; the care economy; research, development and innovation; and the competitiveness of industry and SMEs.

The fund is led by Spain's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, which takes input from the autonomous communities and cities for investment decision-making and looks to the EIB Group as a strategic management partner. The financial instruments for its implementation include:

• a direct financing mechanism, to co-finance EIB-supported operations in sectors like renewable energy, clean transport and sustainable infrastructure;
• an intermediated mechanism managed by financial intermediaries selected by the EIB, to support projects in urban development and sustainable tourism;
• two instruments intermediated by the EIF that will facilitate SME financing for innovation, sustainability and competitiveness.

Naturgy

Naturgy is an energy multinational with a diversified international business portfolio. In addition to Spain, the group is also active in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Panama), the United States and Australia. It supplies gas and electricity to over 18 million customers in these countries, operating in both regulated and liberalised markets. It works in electricity generation, distribution and sale, as well as in gas infrastructure, distribution and sale. The group has electricity generation capacity of 19.1 GW across the world, with a diversified mix including 8.4 GW of renewable capacity.