The measures aim to “reinforce the electrical system” and are related to greater surveillance of compliance with obligations by all operators and companies
The Spanish government approved on Tuesday a “urgent package of measures” related to control of voltage overloads in the electrical system, which several reports known last week identified as the cause of the April blackout in the Iberian peninsula.
The measures, adopted at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, aim to “reinforce the electrical system” and are related, among other aspects, with greater surveillance of obligations by all operators and companies, said the Minister of Ecological Transition of Spain, Sara Aagesen, at a press conference at the end of the weekly government meeting.
Thus, under the approved decree, the Supervision Functions of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), which now has six months to make a first assessment of voltage control obligations of all electrical system agents and then develop an updated report every three months.
CNMC also has the mission of elaborating an extraordinary inspection plan for the electrical system replacement capabilities in case of blackout, with special attention to the centrals with autonomous start and the distribution networks, which will then be repeated every three years.
In parallel, the operating company of the Spanish Electric System, the Electric Red (REE), will have to submit proposals for modifications to current regulations for the power oscillation scenarios and velocity of voltage variation in the network, among other technical aspects.
Ree will also elaborate a new protocol to coordinate the development plans of the power transportation network and the distribution network, as well as make a proposal for minimum monitoring requirements for the analysis of incidents in the system.
These proposals and rere will have to be presented in the next 15 months.
The minister recalled, on the other hand, that the renewable energy units (solar or wind) will be able to control the voltage of the power grid in Equality on circumstances with other conventional production technologies, as announced last week the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC).
Currently, CNMC explained, both synchronous (thermal and hydraulic) production, and asynchronous (solar or wind) have already have voltage control obligations – since 2000 and 2014, respectively – but with the revision of the now announced regulatory framework will be treated by the operator similarly and on equal circumstances.
With this change, the Spanish authorities intend to introduce dynamism into the power grid voltage control service and also encourage the development of more capacities by all technologies.
The now approved review resulted from an initial proposal from June 2021 and 2022 and 2023 “demonstration projects” were launched, which proved the ability of renewables to provide the voltage control service dynamically and with “high economic efficiency”.
According to Minister Sara Aagesen, the package of measures approved this Tuesday to the Council of Ministers following the blackout includes initiatives related to energy storage, as well as incentives for the electrification of the economy, including the flexibility of some procedures.
In this context, the minister announced the unlocking of 931 million euros of European funds for investments in the electricity transport network for the decarbonization projects of the economy.
The Spanish government presented last week the conclusions of the commission it created to investigate the causes of the 28th blackout and revealed that the electric collapse was due to a “combination of factors” that caused high voltage overload that the system was unable to control or absorb, although there was sufficient response infrastructure.
The executive attributed responsibilities to a “bad planning” by the Electric Red of Spain and the failures in the response to which energy -producing companies were required, suspected of breach of the protocols planned for voltage overload situations.
Red Electrical, on the other hand, attributed the blackout to compliance with obligations related to tension control by energy -producing companies, but rejected the accusations of “bad planning”.
For its part, the Spain Energy Companies Association (AELEC), which are part of EDP, Endesa and Iberdrola, attributed the blackout to the mismanagement of the Spanish power operator in fluctuations control and voltage overload.
Despite the disagreement in the assignment of guilt, there is a consensus in which the blackout was due to failures to control tension overload, although there is installed capacity in Spain and mechanisms to do so.
