Spain plays blame game over massive power outage

Spain’s government blamed the national grid operator and electricity companies for a power cut that paralysed the Iberian peninsula amid a fierce debate over renewables.

A bus drives in a dark Madrid during the power outage earlier this year. Picture: AP.

The Spanish government has blamed the “poor planning” of the national grid operator and “improper” actions by electricity companies for a power cut that paralysed the Iberian peninsula earlier this year.

Releasing a report on the blackout, which took place six weeks ago, Sara Aagesen, the energy minister, finally discounted a cyberattack. She took aim at the grid operator REE, which is 20 per cent state owned, saying it had misjudged power capacity needs on April 28 when a surge in voltage caused a blackout across Spain and Portugal.

“The system did not have sufficient dynamic voltage control capacity,” Aagesen told a news briefing in Madrid. REE “told us that they made their calculations and estimated that [switching on more thermal plants] was not necessary at this time. They only set it for the early hours of the day, not the central hours”.

The minister said several technical causes contributed to the event, including “the poor planning” by operators of the grid who failed to find a replacement for a power plant that had given warning that it would be shut down that day. REE did not have enough thermal power stations switched on during peak hours when the surge hit to control it.

The report suggests that some private company-run power plants failed to play their role during the crisis. “The generating units that should have controlled the voltage, and many of which were financially compensated to do so, did not absorb all the reactive power that was expected in a context of high voltages,” Aagesen said.

The minister did not name the companies that allegedly disconnected their plants “improperly … to protect their installations”. Due to these miscalculations “we reached a point of no return with an uncontrollable chain reaction” she said.

The system operator’s actions to mitigate the fluctuations also contributed to an increase in voltage, the minister said. Measures were taken to control frequency fluctuations – such as meshing the grid and shutting down exports to France – which further increased system voltage.

The power cut, one of the worst in Europe in recent years, has been a source of acute embarrassment for the Socialist-led government of Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister, who is also battling for political survival amid corruption scandals linked to his inner circle. In just five seconds, Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity – or about 60 per cent of its supply.

The government and the national grid have been engaged in a war of words with electricity companies over the power cut. Aagesen had accused companies of failing to share information needed to identify its causes.

Beatriz Corredor, the head of REE, a former Socialist minister who was appointed by Sanchez, had blamed power companies for failing to help maintain an appropriate voltage level that day.

The power cut has led to a debate about whether dependence on renewable energy was to blame, although the suggestion has been dismissed by Sanchez, a champion of decarbonisation.

Aagesen acknowledged that “vulnerabilities” and “deficiencies” had been identified in Spain’s power grid security systems. She said corrective measures would be proposed.

The Times