Spanish energy expert Antonio Delgado Rigal tells PV -Magazine That although the exact cause of yesterday’s national Black -out in Spain remains unclear, preliminary signs indicate raster instability caused by system failure.
A widespread power outage on 28 April left millions without electricity in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and parts of South France, disturbing critical infrastructure, stopping public transport and the breaking of communication. The black -out started at 12:33 pm (CEST), but the cause of it is still unclear.
“During the malfunction, all the nuclear power stations of Spain and combined cycle gas factories stopped to operate, while renewable energy sources were still able to finally deliver electricity” PV -Magazine. “In some of the areas of the country it took approximately 13 hours to restore the power supply, although renewable energy sources could always work.”
Although the cause of the black -out remains unknown, Delgado Rigal said that a cyber attack or external threat is unlikely.
“I would rather find the cause in a system failure that is unable to cope with the Power Network instability,” he explained. “The trigger was a frequency or voltage variation, an oscillation that took place somewhere and activated a domino effect in security systems. This happened within a few seconds and is very difficult to manage.”
Many have blamed renewable energy sources for the instability of Spain after the blackout, but Delgado Rigal said that although renewable energy sources contribute to instability, the core problem is that the energy system remains unprepared to manage their growing share.
“All protections in the Spanish grid are intended for the turbine system and synchronism that are planned to work on a rotation schedule,” he added. “With renewable energy sources, this configuration can become a problem.”
Delgado Rigal noted that the event was probably related to Power Network Instability and a failure in a system that was designed years ago for a different generation mix. A line issue in France was reported, but the exact role remains unclear, he added.
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