The Spanish government has blamed the national grid operator and private power generation firms for causing an energy blackout which brought huge disruption to Spain and Portugal in the spring.
Widespread Impact Across Spain and Portugal
Both countries were severed from the European electricity grid after lunch on 28 April for a few hours. Shops, schools, universities, government offices and transport hubs all lost power and the failure of traffic lights caused standstills.
While pupils, students and workers were dismissed from school for the day, a large number of other individuals were trapped in lifts or left stranded on trains in remote parts of the countryside.
In the first few days afterward, the left-wing government coalition made no statement, awaiting patiently as it investigated.
Minister’s Report Points to Underestimated Requirements
Almost two months after the record-breaking blackout, minister for environmental transition Sara Aagesen has put forward a report on the causes.
She said the state-participated grid operator, Red Eléctrica, had underestimated the power capacity requirements for the day, citing the fact that the “system did not have enough dynamic voltage capacity”.
Another thermal power plant should have been turned on, she said, but “they did their calculations and concluded that it was not necessary”.
Private Generators Also Held Responsible in Spain
Private generators were also to blame for not controlling the voltage in the grid just before the blackout occurred, Aagesen said.
“Generation companies that were designed to regulate voltage and who, in turn, were compensated to do so did not take in all the voltage that they should have when tension was heightened,” she explained, but did not specify which of the companies were at fault.
Prime Minister of Spain and Report Raise Accountability Concerns
The day following the blackout, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez indicated that private electricity firms may have been involved and that his government would call for “all the corresponding accountability” from them.
But the latest report on the blackout also puts doubt on the role of Beatriz Corredor, head of the Grid Operator Red Eléctrica and an ex-Socialist minister, who had originally asserted that the grid regulator had not been to blame.
Aagesen added that they had no proof that the blackout was caused by a cyber-attack.
Political Criticism and Debate Over Energy Model
The delay by the government in offering an explanation for the blackout had evoked criticisms across the board and prompted severe scrutiny of the nation’s energy model, with the opposition hinting that a growing focus on renewables and avoidance of nuclear power might have had something to do with it.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the dominant opposition People’s Party (PP), declared that the prime minister was “so determined to be the greenest in the world that you have led Spaniards into the dark”.
The government has, however, insisted time and time again that Spain’s renewable energy production was not responsible for the outage.