System Operator has not yet clarified if the generation limits from intermittent sources and without inertia
In Spain, electricity production from photovoltaic panels dropped to one third in the days following the blackout. It was from 17,670 MW to 12h00 in Madrid from April 28, 33 minutes before the blackout. In the following days until yesterday, at the same time, it dropped to an average of 5,578 MW, with a minimum of 2,033 MW on the holiday of May 1 and a maximum of 8,584 MW on April 29. “It is clear that the operating guidelines of RED Electric have changed,” writes Joaquin Coronado Galdos, co-founder of Digital Five Investments, which is dedicated to financing and strategic support to energy transition projects on the LinkedIn social network.
“Being right, we must take into account meteorology,” commented Pablo Díaz Villar, professor of energy engineering at the University of Alcalá. In recent days, temperatures have lowered and the neighboring country has faced coastal rains and storms in regions such as Galicia, Castile and Leão, Basque country, Valencia and Andalusia. “I do not extract definitive conclusions, but I believe that, in the fall of photovoltaic energy, there is some kind of decision of the system operator, because production levels are abnormally low,” replied Coronado Galdos.
“By reducing their solar production in the following days, the Spaniards themselves are implicitly recognizing that that was the cause of the incident,” to CNN Portugal José Luís Pinto de Sá, jubilated teacher at Instituto Superior Technical. To avoid new blackouts, this expert and researcher in electricity advocates greater resource to traditional thermoelectric plants and dams, as a way to increase system resistance to adverse events.
This was precisely that that happened in recent days in Spain. At 12 noon, the hydroelectric generation rose from 569 MW, on the 28th, to 13,560 MW yesterday, Saturday, April 3. At the same time, in the five days following the blackout, the average dam production was 9,000 MW. To respond to the disaster, the Spaniards also resorted to combined cycle thermoelectric power plants, which join steam turbines, which increases their efficiency. These centrals with mechanical generators produced 971 MW at 12 hours on the day of the accident. At the same time, they climbed
to 5,736mw on the day of the system’s resuming and registered an average of 4,280 MW between Tuesday and Saturday.
