Latest news with #RedElectrica
Mint
23-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Spain's Power Utilities Lay Blackout Blame on Grid Operator
(Bloomberg) -- Spanish power companies laid the blame for April's crippling blackout squarely with the country's grid operator, saying it hadn't lined up enough backup plants to safeguard supplies. Red Electrica didn't ensure a sufficient number of plants were available on standby, industry group AELEC said in a report on Monday. The April 28 blackout, which cut power to more than 50 million people on the Iberian Peninsula for several hours, has triggered a fierce blame game between political parties and energy companies. Earlier this month, the government faulted Red Electrica for failing to ensure enough backup generation, as well as power-plant operators for not fulfilling their commitments on the day. The grid operator has accused the power companies of failing to help keep voltage steady, a charge not addressed by AELEC in Monday's report. The group said only that its members, which include Iberdrola SA and Endesa SA, 'acted in accordance with the requirements' set out in current regulation, 'fully complying at all times with the orders issued by the system operator.' A Red Electrica spokesperson wasn't immediately available to comment on Monday. The grid operator on June 18 said it managed the network properly on the day of the incident. The new study follows the publication last week of two more reports on the blackout, and adds one more chapter to the recriminations between power companies, the grid operator and the cabinet. Monday's report said that only 11 thermal stations were operating on the day of the blackout, the lowest number this year, and that only one was operating in southern Spain when over-voltage was recorded. Still, AELEC didn't respond specifically to accusations that almost all of those plants didn't perform properly by helping the grid operator manage voltage with what's known as reactive power, as the government and Red Electrica had previously found. Data on whether plants performed properly are confidential and are currently being analyzed by Spanish competition watchdog CNMC, said AELEC's Head of Regulation Marta Castro. AELEC's document claims that steps taken by Red Electrica ahead of the blackout worsened the electricity system's voltage control issues. The decision to connect various transport lines from noon — about half an hour before the blackout — ended up 'weakening the system' and 'worsened the over-voltage existing minutes before the blackout.' The report also said that the interconnection with France may have been mismanaged, and questions why Red Electrica decided not to rely on five available hydropower plants to stabilize voltage in an effort to avert the outage. --With assistance from John Deane. (Updates with more details from report starting in seventh paragraph.) More stories like this are available on
Bloomberg
23-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Spain's Power Utilities Lay Blackout Blame on Grid Operator
Spanish power companies laid the blame for April's crippling blackout squarely with the country's grid operator, saying it hadn't lined up enough backup plants to safeguard supplies. Red Electrica didn't ensure a sufficient number of plants were available on standby, industry group AELEC said in a report on Monday.
Bloomberg
18-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Spanish Grid Denies Network Mismanagement on Day of Blackout
Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said it managed the network properly on the day of the nationwide blackout in April, clashing with the government's opinion about the causes of the incident. The operator 'performed the appropriate calculations and made the relevant decisions in the programming of technical constraints,' it said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it did so 'always assuming that all units comply with the technical requirements established by regulations.' Generators failed to comply with a requirement to help stabilize the electricity system, Red said.
Qatar Tribune
17-06-2025
- Business
- Qatar Tribune
EIB funds France-Spain power link
Agencies The European Investment Bank (EIB) on Monday announced 1.6 billion euros ($1.84 billion) of fresh funding for a major electricity interconnection between France and Spain, fulfilling demands by Madrid and Lisbon after the huge April blackout, which raised concerns over the state of power grids in Europe. Experts believe the severity of one of Europe's largest power outages, which paralysed the entire Iberian Peninsula on April 28, could have been mitigated with more interconnections between the neighboring countries. The EIB said it would provide loans to the Spanish and French grid operators, Red Electrica and RTE, for the Bay of Biscay project, which will almost double power exchange capacity from 2,800 to 5,000 megawatts (MW). The interconnection, already under construction and due to start in 2028, will stretch over 400 kilometers. On Monday, the first tranches of 1.2 billion euros were signed at EIB headquarters in Luxembourg in an event involving the bank's president Nadia Calvino, EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen and senior French and Spanish officials. The European Union has set an interconnection target for member states of at least 15% of installed electricity production capacity by 2030 to improve the bloc's energy security. The blackout exposed Spain and Portugal's relative lack of interconnections, with support from France and Morocco playing an important role in restoring power.
BreakingNews.ie
17-06-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Spain says blackout caused by grid failures and poor planning not a cyber attack
Spain's government has said that the massive April power outage across Spain and Portugal that left tens of millions of people disconnected in seconds was caused by technical and planning errors that left the grid unable to handle a surge in voltage. Ecological transition minister Sara Aagesen, who manages the nation's energy policy, told reporters that a voltage surge led to small grid failures, mainly in the south of Spain, which then cascaded to larger ones and brought the system down in the two Iberian Peninsula nations. Advertisement She ruled out that the failure was due to a cyber attack. The outage began shortly after noon on April 28 in Spain and lasted through nightfall, disrupting businesses, transport systems, mobile networks, internet connectivity and other critical infrastructure. Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity – or about 60% of its supply. Portugal, whose grid is connected to Spain's, also went down. Only the countries' island territories were spared. 'All of this happened in 12 seconds, with most of the power loss happening in just five seconds,' Ms Aagesen said. Advertisement Several technical causes contributed to the event, including 'poor planning' by Spain's grid operator Red Electrica, which did not find a replacement for one power plant that was supposed to help balance power fluctuations, the minister said. She also said that some power plants that utilities shut off preventively when the disruptions started could have stayed online to help manage the system. Power was fully restored by the early hours of the following day. The government's report was being released on Tuesday – 49 days after the event – and included analysis from Spain's national security agencies, which concluded, according to the minister, there were no indications of cyber-sabotage by foreign actors. Advertisement The government had previously narrowed down the source of the outage to three power plants that tripped in southern Spain. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defended renewables (PA) In the weeks following the blackout, citizens and experts were left wondering what triggered the event in a region not known for power cuts. The outage ignited a fierce debate about whether Spain's high levels of renewable power and not enough energy generated from nuclear or gas-fired power plants had something to do with the grid failing, which the government has repeatedly denied. Spain is at the forefront of Europe's transition to renewable energy, having generated nearly 57% of its electricity in 2024 from renewable energy sources such as wind, hydropower and solar. The country is also phasing out its nuclear plants. Advertisement Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pushed back against such speculation and defended the country's rapid ramping up of renewables. He asked for patience and said that his government would not 'deviate a single millimetre' from its energy transition plans, which include a goal of generating 81% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
