Spain Grid Operator Vows Record Investments After Blackout

Spain’s national grid operator Redeia will plan for a record-high investments in its next strategic plan, chair Beatriz Corredor said on Monday as the blame game over who is responsible for the massive blackout in April continues. 

“The company’s next strategic plan will involve the execution of an unprecedented volume of investments,” Reuters quoted Corredor as saying on Monday.  

Redeia and its unit Red Electrica (REE) have been blamed for the power outage on April 28, when a blackout hit the electricity transmission systems of Spain and Portugal, and briefly parts of France, in a very rare blackout in Europe. The blackout, which began at around 12:00 PM GMT on Monday, hit major cities and transportation networks, leaving authorities scrambling to restore power and ascertain the underlying cause. Airports grounded flights, hospitals postponed routine surgeries, while authorities in both Spain and Portugal declared a state of emergency. Internet and mobile phone services were interrupted.

Analyses have found that the blackout wasn’t caused by too much solar or wind, but by outdated grid rules, weak voltage control, and poor coordination of system assets. 

The Spanish power utilities association last week blamed the poor planning of the grid operator on the outage. The electric utilities lobby Aelec has rejected an earlier assessment by REE that power plants were responsible for the outage. REE has said that some gas-fired, coal, and nuclear power plants didn’t maintain an adequate voltage level on the day of the outage. 

“We regret that Red Electrica has launched a generalised accusation against hundreds of power generation companies,” Marina Serrano, chair of the Aelec organization said, as quoted by Reuters. 

Earlier this month, REE recommended in the report on the outage that the system needs reinforcement of voltage control capabilities within the distribution network, among others. 

REE also recommends expansion of system capabilities for oscillation damping, including both operational measures and infrastructure enhancements. 

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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