Spain and Portugal blackout blamed on solar power dependency

Former controllers and experts say Spain’s inability of the power grid was the main reason for conducting abnormal high supply of Monday’s catastrophic blackout.

About 55 percent SpainWithin five seconds on Monday afternoon, the power generation from the grid was disconnected from the solar source, trigging the broad shutdown of Spain and Portugal’s power system.

Several European experts say that Spain’s adequate scene is lacking in Firm – easily available, reliable energy supply from sources such as fossil fuel or atomic – can be reduced or raised on Monday at 12.30pm. The frequency, at the rate at which the electrical current options should be stable to enforce the grid.

Spanish Grid Operator Red Electrica says it does not yet know the exact cause of the conflict. The Chief Executive Beatridge Corador denied that the renewant in an interview with the EL Pass on Wednesday “made the system more vulnerable”.

However, France’s Grid Operator RTE founder and former chief executive Andre Merlin told the Financial Times: “Two-thirds [Spain’s electricity] Was formed by non-controlled resources of production. These are controllable resources. The The Do not contribute to the stability of the internal electrical system. “

Spanish former Energy Officer and member of the International Energy Agency Board, George Sanz, told Spanish Television on Wednesday evening that a power oversopley could initially cause the problem. Generally, the grid operator operated it by telling the traditional plants to make their output medium but it was not possible because very few plants were in the line, Sanj said.

It was disconnected to avoid the loss of the equipment, causing disconnects, resulting in isolated.

Sanz said: “The supply was imbalance. [The grid operator] The supply of electricity needs to be reduced, but when it resorts to the facility of the Firm to reduce the burden, it can just do this because they were barely connected. “

Last month, the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Transport, revealed through his X account that “excessive voltage on the network” was a failure that left some high-speed railway operation for several hours.

Meanwhile, a close energy adviser to the European Commission also said that the lack of power to maintain the high -renewable dependence of the country and the balance of interim supply is that experts are searching for the blackout.

Grid operators need to maintain the supply and demand of electricity to keep the grid frequency stable and to avoid harmful equipment or conflict. It is easy to achieve this stability with fossil fuel, hydropower or turbines powered by Atomic power Than renewable technology as solar. Spain’s grid frequency has dropped below the best 50Hz rate at 12.33 Monday night.

The dependence on solar power during the conflict has criticized the Red Elextrica. Usually about a fifth of the country’s supply comes from solar power.

Former Energy Advisor to the Spanish Government Sanz said the grid had a “weak management” due to lack of adequate nuclear, hydropower or fossil fuel for the balance of the system. On Monday, only 5GW of 26GW power supply came from non-intermittent sources.

The Brussels-based adviser Red Elactorica points to its own 2024 annual report, which said that the connections caused by “higher renewable intrusion” were at risk of the system without the adequate “adequate technology required for disruption”.

Marlin criticized less than the operator but said that renewable policies should be reviewed in light of the incident. “I don’t think that there is bad management from Spanish or Portuguese operators. Simply put, we need to be careful about the maximum development policies and maximum use of interim renewable energy for more conventional ways.”

Some experts say that a cascade of events than a single problem may be responsible for the outage. “What we usually find is that a few things went wrong at the same time,” said, “Cristian Ruby, Secretary-General of the Art Body Urelegric.

Marlin suggested that solar plants could first fail. He proposed a different theory for the concept of Sanj’s solar oversplay, which can induce the cover of heavy clouds to produce rapidly in some solar plants, directly affect the frequency of the grid.

The Red Electicrica, which is under intense pressure to explain what happened, said the company could not yet identify the cause of the conflict and could not say that the solar plants were behind the disconnection. He said the operator has observed sudden disconnection in the southwestern region of Spain, where many solar plants are located.

However, he introduced a rigorous defense of Spain’s renewable systems and pointed to the incredibility of other energy sources, including atomic. “[Renewables] Not unsafe technology. The proof is that the system works with renewables every day. The The It is not true that the higher infiltration of renewables has made the system weaken. “

As well as reduce carbon emissions and nuclear waste production, Spain Renewable power The network has contributed to lower energy prices than many other European countries, thus helping in industry and economic growth.

Pedro Sanchez’s government has planned to increase the power generation to 5 percent by 5 percent by 20, compared to more than half of 2021.

However, Sanchez has been on fire from anti -Sanchez politicians for plans to remove the expensive nuclear network in Spain, and several experts, including Marlin, have suggested more use in Spain to use nuclear power to ensure strength protection.

Eberdroler’s executive chair Ignacio Galan told analysts on Tuesday that the lowest expensive solution to secure the stability of the nuclear system “.

Another solution is to improve the connection with other countries to import an accelerated rollout of battery technology or storage systems, or more energy imports.

“At this point, more storage capacity for the country should be a major focus,” Restored Energy’s analyst Ramdas said.

David Sharok’s Additional Report in Madrid