Estela Silva / Lusa
Traffic light without lights on the mythical blackout, April 28
Modular software aims to allow autonomous and decentralized management of the power grid, based on data collected by smart accountants and weather forecasts. It is being tested.
The known German technology Siemens It is presented as a solution in the modernization of the management of electrical networks and is collaborating with the operators of Electrical Network Ren, from Portugal, and Spanish rere to avoid another as which affected Portugal and Spain on April 28, leaving millions of people without electricity for more than 12 hours.
The news is advanced by the company’s new software portfolio, Gridscale Xto be “cooked” in the “Secret of the Gods” – a digital solution integrated on the Xcelerator platform, launched in 2023.
Modular software aims to allow a autonomous and decentralized management of the electricity gridbased on data collected by smart accountants and weather forecasts. You should anticipate production peaks, such as intense sunny days, so you can predict traffic jams and propose measurements to avoid failures.
As it had already been explained at blackout, the complexification of electrical networks is largely due to the growing weight of renewable energy, such as solar and wind that, although essential for energy transition, introduce a high degree of unpredictability and network instability, mainly due to production variability and decentralized connection through inverters.
Although Portugal and Spain already use Siemens software for network management and simulation, the company insists on need for an “upgrade” For the new GRIDSCALE X generation. Collaboration with Iberian operators is already underway and, in Portugal, Siemens also participates in strategic projects in more than 160 substations that support solar and wind production.
Siemens’s bet It is not limited to the Iberian Peninsula. In several European countries, such as the Netherlands, Norway, Malta and Italy, the software is being tested. In the Italian city of Trieste, for example, technology collaborated in the creation of a “digital twin” of the network, allowing to simulate and manage the electrical system without affecting the actual infrastructure. It was critical to finding electric supply solutions to the city’s port, one of the busiest in Europe.
Another example is the Romeflex project in Rome, where Siemens collaborates with the local distributor Areti in the creation of a flexibility market. Through auctions, consumers and producers can be paid by providing energy to the network at times of need.
The long-term goal is to achieve 100% autonomous network management, similar to autonomous driving systems.
Blackout showed the “deep” difference between mobile networks
According to an Ookla report, the blackout impact made it feel more in Portugal than in Spain: more than a third of Portuguese mobile users have fully lost its service during the crisis.
Among the operators, the Digi was the most affectedwith about 90% of their subscribers without mobile coverage for more than 24 hours – a demonstration of the limitations of a network still little developed in the national territory.
I and MEO He was positioned as the most robust, with reserve batteries that managed to mitigate the effects of blackout. During the peak of the failure, MEO customers had half the likelihood of losing their service compared to the NOS, four times less than Vodafone and six times less than Digi.
A Vodafone It also registered a significant interruption, with 70% of its customers still without service at 7:30 pm, and only started to gradually recover from 20h00. Already the NosDespite sharing part of the infrastructure with Vodafone, it was able to maintain greater stability in places where it operates autonomously.
