Latest news with #ManuelFernándezOrdóñez
Wall Street Journal
19-05-2025
- Wall Street Journal
A Piece of Advice on the Power Grid in Spain
Regarding Gabriel Calzada and Manuel Fernández Ordóñez's op-ed 'How the Lights Went Out in Spain' (May 1): My wife and I were in Mijas, a tourist town in the hills of the Costa del Sol, at the time of the outage. The disruption was total. No power, cell service, internet or running water. Tourists in Europe are highly dependent on tap-to-pay, so they carry little cash. Without cell service and the internet, electronic payment systems didn't work. Banks closed at once making it impossible to get the cash needed to pay taxi drivers to get down the mountain. And forget about calling an Uber. The panic was palpable. When I heard that the cause was oscillations, I told my wife the problem was likely the excessive use of solar. As an electrical engineer I know the electric grid requires a perfect balance between supply and demand, which is difficult to maintain with a high percentage of power coming from solar and wind. The passage of clouds can actually add to the instability. As the authors explain, without the shock absorbers of rotating synchronous generators, stability becomes very difficult to maintain. The result, as was learned on vacation, can be catastrophic.
Wall Street Journal
19-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Will Spain Learn Its Lesson on Free Markets?
Gabriel Calzada and Manuel Fernández Ordóñez rightly note that grid stability depends in part on conventional power plants providing inertia ('How the Lights Went Out in Spain,' op-ed, May 1). The greater the share of renewables, the less inertia. But how did Spain get to this point? Through government design of the grid and the absence of a free market for electricity. The early decades of the electricity sector were competitive, innovative and dynamic. Improving reliability was the key to success as in any competitive business. Eventually the government took increasing control of the grid. Then 25 years ago Spain's grid moved to the 'liberalized' but centrally planned market structure common throughout the world. The appearance of a market structure created the illusion of a free market, but it's nothing of the kind.
