National power blackout
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Spain's government maintains the momentum of releasing new pieces of information from the investigation into the causes of the historic blackout that switched the Iberian Peninsula off on 28 April.
The latest update came from third vice-president and head of the Ministry of Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen who, during Wednesday's senate session, said that there was a "power surge" prior to the blackout. "The cause and consequence have yet to be determined," she added.
However, Aagesen avoided pointing the finger at the responsible system operator - Red Eléctrica. According to the minister, the inertia - the system's ability to withstand rapid changes in frequency in the face of disturbances - was "appropriate" in the moments before the collapse.
The minister has stated that she is open to including "possible incidents prior to the power cut that may or may not have been related to what happened" to the analysis they are carrying out. Electricity companies have requested that the investigation also include the extreme and generalised voltage variations in the grid during the morning of Monday 28 April and the previous days.
"Already on April 22 and 24, variations had been observed that triggered the automatic disconnection of generation facilities and customers, such as the Cartagena refinery and ADIF’s high-speed rail lines, which received media attention," stated AELEC on Tuesday. AELEC is the association that represents Spain's main electricity companies - Iberdrola, Endesa, and EdP.
"Eectricity companies are wary of the European investigation, warning that its preliminary report omits significant voltage fluctuations throughout the Iberian grid both on the morning of the blackout and during the previous week," said AELEC. "Surprisingly, the preliminary analysis (...) ignores this circumstance and states that the grid was in a normal state seconds before the blackout," the association added.
Aagesen has focused on the oscillations that occurred half an hour before the collapse. According to her, there were two oscillations, both within the system and beyond the border.
The first, of unknown origin, occurred at 12.03pm, with a frequency deviation of 0.6 hertz (Hz), which experts described as "anomalous", and after which the system took five minutes to stabilise. The second, at 12.19pm, was dampened in just over three minutes and is considered a known and common type of event.
The minister said she was convinced that the government could have its report on the blackout in three months. Other organisations such as Entso-E or the Portuguese regulator are giving themselves a timeframe of six months and a year and a half, respectively.
On Wednesday, Spain and Portugal formalised their common diplomatic front after stressing the "urgent need" to speed up electricity interconnections with the Spanish mainland and avoid future blackouts. The letter was sent to the European commissioner for energy, Dan Jørgensen.
"A strong political and financial commitment is needed, at all levels, to ensure the rapid and effective integration of the Iberian Peninsula into the EU energy system," reads the letter. Aagesen and her Portuguese counterpart, Maria da Graça Carvalho, call for urgent increase in transmission capacity - a priority "not only for Spain and Portugal, but for the European Union as a whole".
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