There are experts who believe that overcoming solar energy may have caused a network overvoltage and generated blackout, but the Spanish network removes this hypothesis.
The unprecedented blackout, which affected the entire Iberian Peninsula this Monday, should have originated in Sudden is 15 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to the consumption of 11.5 million homes.
According to Eduardo Prieto, director of Electric Red Spanish (Ree), everything happened in a 5 second space. Initially, there was a breach of power generation in the southwest region of Spain, from which the system recovered. However, 1.5 seconds later, a second loss of production took place; and 3.5 seconds later there was a “disruption in the connection” between Spain and France, which isolated the Iberian Peninsula from the European power grid.
Soon after, there was a mass shutdown of the Spanish renewable power plants, to which the Iberian system could not “survive”, as there was an abrupt 60% failure of the energy then consumed in Spain. Portugal, which at the moment imported about 30% From its Electricity of Spain, it was also affected by systemic failure.
There are experts who believe that the instability of solar production, more difficult to manage technically and highly dependent on weather factors, may have been the cause of oscillation. Experts indicate that the excess photovoltaic energyespecially during the periods of higher solar radiation, it has surpassed the capacity for consumption and storage, as had already been checked days before blackout. Overvolving the network will have triggered the protective devices and generated the blackout.
However, the president of the Spanish operator Red Electric, Beatriz Corridor, considers that “It’s not correct” to associate the blackout with solar energy. In an interview with Spanish radio Cadena Ser, a corridor repeated that “the Spanish electric system is the best in Europe” and that the operator is still ascertaining what happened.
Ree too Discarded any cyberatoquealthough the case is being analyzed by the national hearing and the Spanish secret services.
The Spanish government guaranteed full transparency in the investigation, promising to investigate responsibilities with the private operators. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was categorical: “What happened cannot repeat again.”
Spanish network knew the risk 2 months ago
It is recalled that similar cases, with less impact, had already been registered, such as that occurred on 22 April, when a Repsol refinery was forced to suspend operations, and the high-speed trains faced failures due to excess voltage.
Ree’s annual report, released just two months ago, already pointed to the “Hypothetical danger” of a widespread blackout. The document points to possible “generation disconnections” of electricity that risks being “severe” and “significantly” affecting supply due to the high penetration of renewable energy sources.
Redeia, a parent company, also issued alerts due to the closure of coal, natural gas and nuclear in Spain, which left the country’s electrical system more vulnerable to unforeseen.
Divided specialists
In Portugal, the government has announced measures to increase network resilience, including reinforcing autonomous start -up capacity in more power plants such as Baixo Sabor and Alqueva.
An former REN official, heard by, also believes that the duration of blackout in Portugal could have been shortened from 11 to 3 hours If the country had more autonomous starter centers. “Whenever power disappears, something has to enter immediately to its place. Intermittent sources like wind or solar do not allow it, but combined cycle, gas or coal, yes – as long as they are in operation, even if only half load,” he explained.
However, there are experts that disagree. “The intensity of what happened in Spain did not give Portugal any response capacity. It’s like a virus: Where it touches, erases the central, ”says another former operational responsible in the energy area.
Heard by, Nuno Ribeiro da Silva, former Secretary of State for Energy and former President of the Endesa Electric Electric in Portugal, considers that the theory on excessive solar energy “It makes no senseAnd do not rule out a possible human error.
“Portugal has already operated several days in a row only with renewables and nothing happened. If there was more solar in Spain that day, the responsibility to safeguard the situation was from the system operator“, He argues.
