Spain's electricity grid operator suffers new outage in its control systems despite reinforcing them after national power blackout
Red Eléctrica operated with its back-up system for four hours this week, although consumers around the country did not notice
Spain's electricity grid operator - Red Eléctrica (REE) - has registered a new system failure despite the measures it has activated since the national power blackout on 28 April. The most recent breakdown lasted four hours, although consumers did not notice it. It happened at around midnight between 16 and 17 July.
Following the serious power outage in April, the government announced an urgent 750-million-euro investment to improve the infrastructure. The system is now supplying energy through more stable sources such as gas or nuclear from zero energy, with the corresponding price increase on household and business bills.
Despite this initiative, Red Eléctrica suffered a technical issue on the night between Wednesday and Thursday. It activated the backup control system until the issue affecting the primary system was resolved. "The backup system is ready to respond and guarantee operability," said REE, adding that this incident is not related to the blackout in April.
However, all eyes have been on Red Eléctrica since the three Aelec private companies (Iberdrola, Endesa and EDP) published a report in which they pointed to a "serious voltage control failure" and "lack of programming" related to REE as the cause of the blackout that left the Iberian Peninsula in darkness. .
