Spanish grid operator blames big power plants for blackouts

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The grid operator in Spain has accused large power plants for not performing their duties to help regulate the electricity system of the country just moments before the catastrophic blackout that swept the Iberian Peninsula last month.

Beatriz Corredor, chair of grid operator Red Eléctrica’s parent company, said power plants fell short in controlling the voltage of the electricity system.

The heads of Spain’s largest plant owners, however, attributed the blackouts to a lack grid investment and inadequate efforts to boost the electricity demand.

Spanish investigators insist they need more time to determine the cause of the power outage, more than three week after 60mn people went without electricity.

The Corredor’s revelations Thursday open a new front. At first, it was thought that the blackout could have been caused by Spain’s heavy reliance on wind and solar power.

Corredor didn’t say that large power plants are the cause of the problem, but she did state that certain gas, nuclear, or hydroelectric installations in south-west Spain were “below optimal”. [the levels] “Required by current voltage regulation”.

They could play a significant role because experts identified the main cause of the blackout to be a surge of voltage on the grid and a decrease in the frequency that electrical current alternates. These factors triggered the disconnection of multiple generation units.  

Corredor insisted that moments before the failure on April 28, the part of the system controlled by Red Eléctrica, including grid substations, was operating within the voltage ranges established by regulatory norms.

She said, “We have to take into consideration what is happening with voltage throughout the rest of the system.” “Because [Red Eléctrica] Are the brain and spine. “But this system has legs, arms and a heart. These are the plants that produce electricity.”

When there is a surge in voltage on the grid, power plants will automatically shut down to protect the equipment.

Corredor stated that voltage variations had “a lot to do” with the role power plants play in regulating levels. They “absorbed” what’s known as reactive energy, a portion electricity oscillates from generators to final consumers. Her claim was that absorption rates were too low just before the blackout.

Endesa Iberdrola Naturgy are the three biggest Spanish power plant owners.

One power sector official pushed back against the claims, saying “the power plants provided the best services they could despite the abnormal behaviour of the transmission grid”, which is run by Red Eléctrica.

The official said Red Eléctrica “could have activated more power plants to control voltage and absorb reactive power, both the day before and during the morning [of April 28]”.

José Bogas, Endesa’s chief executive, said on Thursday a crucial lesson of the power failure was that Spain had failed to update its grid for an era of heavy dependence on wind and solar — which were contributing about 70 per cent of its electricity just before the blackout.

Speaking before Corredor at an event organised by the newspaper Expansión, Bogas noted that individual renewable installations were — compared with traditional fossil fuel and nuclear power plants — smaller, more dispersed and further from big centres of consumption.

He said: “I believe we have operated the system in the same way as when we first began.” [depended more on] Large [traditional] “Power plants”

Mario Ruiz Tagle, CEO of Iberdrola Spain, stated that one problem is the fact that the country has not done enough in order to stimulate demand for the entire amount of electricity it produces.

The problem is not the amount of renewables we have. “The problem is making sure that we use these renewables to electrify industry, so electric vehicles can become more prevalent, and so heat pumps can become more widespread.”