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Epoch Times
03-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Iberian Blackout Raises Concerns Over Renewables-Heavy Power Grids
For one day in the sunny Iberian Peninsula, the lights went off, in what has been described as the worst blackout in living memory in Europe. With power now restored, authorities are probing the root cause, but energy analysts say that the region's heavy reliance on intermittent renewables may have enabled the grid collapse. The core issue is grid frequency, a 50Hz 'heartbeat' that must stay balanced and is fundamental to how electricity travels through the grid. To keep the frequency stable, the grid needs an unwavering force of power, something the industry refers to as 'inertia.' Fossil fuel oil and gas-fired stations and nuclear power plants have traditionally enabled the decades-old grid to keep a consistent frequency. However, the rapid increase in renewables and their variable output can effectively throw the rest of the grid out of balance, analysts say. Related Stories 4/29/2025 4/28/2025 An unexplained fault on April 28 led to widespread The disturbance caused the France–Spain interconnector to trip, instantly isolating the two networks. Red Eléctrica de España (REE) said on 'The Iberian incident is a lesson in trigger events and systemic risk, both of which are exaggerated by renewables,' Andy Mayer, COO and energy analyst at the free market think tank Institute of Economic Affairs, told The Epoch Times by email. Since adopting its Climate Change and Energy Transition Law in The first reactor is slated to close in 2027, envisioning a grid powered almost exclusively by wind and solar. At an However, a day later, REE president Beatriz Corredor Cadena, a former Socialist minister, flatly Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also A young couple stands on a wall looking at the sky at a viewpoint overlooking Lisbon during a nationwide power outage, dated April 28, 2025. Armando Franca/AP Photo In its annual report 'The closure of conventional generation plants such as coal, combined cycle, and nuclear (in response to regulatory requirements) leads to a reduction in the firm generation and balancing capacities of the electricity system, as well as its strength and inertia,' it said. Inertia is the stored kinetic energy of the system's giant spinning metal turbines. In large power plants, these steel turbines weigh hundreds of tonnes and span several metres, spinning at 3,000 rpm in a 50 Hz system to stabilize frequency by resisting sudden speed changes. 'This increases the risk of operational incidents that could affect supply and damage the company's reputation. This carries a risk over a short to medium-term horizon,' REE said. 'It affects both own operations and those of customers and users,' it added. 'Ideological Approach' Analysts begged to differ with the hesitancy to blame renewables. Mayer said that wind and solar power are intermittent and weather-dependent. And every day carries 'an elevated risk of a power cut over conventional generation from gas, coal or nuclear,' he said. According to Mayer, renewables are more difficult to connect to the grid and more distributed, requiring more equipment and creating more points of failure. He said that such sources lack inertia, which means when they fail, 'they fail fast and hard.' 'A sudden loss of power in turn can push the rest of the grid out of balance, triggering relays designed to stop 'oscillation events' from damaging equipment,' he said. 'Consequently, there is higher risk of a trigger event, and a higher risk of a systemic cascade in a renewables-rich power grid. That's what just happened in Spain and Portugal,' he said. He added that there are solutions called 'inertia services' like flywheels—which are machines that can continuously accelerate and decelerate to balance electrical supply and demand—so the grid can be tuned to the right frequency. He added that batteries and grid-forming inverters can also reduce renewables risk, but these add to the cost of deployment. While electricity was restored to most of Spain and Portugal early on Tuesday, European leaders will be keen to give assurances it won't happen again. Mayer said that all national grids with renewables 'are aware of this problem, but the policy incentives are wrong.' He criticized that most governments have taken an 'ideological approach' to achieving net zero by setting renewable capacity targets and not delivered output targets. He said this has led to sometimes 'useless over-supply, in the wrong places, without concomitant investment in grid security.' 'The disaster to avoid is ploughing on with net zero regardless, and hoping consumers and industry will bear the already high cost or forgive the occasional day of darkness,' he said. 'Any government not carefully reviewing which path they're on after this week should be mindful that those that lose power, lose power,' he added. Energy expert David Turver told The Epoch Times by email that he thinks the countries with high wind and solar penetration are 'most vulnerable.' He said that France's 50GW of nuclear power stations will provide considerable inertia, along with Germany's coal-fired power plants. 'The way to generate synthetic inertia is through batteries and possibly flywheels. All very expensive,' he added. 'First Total Blackout' In a Cinco Días opinion piece on April 29, Jordi Sevilla, who served as REE's chair until 2020, said that the government is moving too quickly to retire nuclear power plants, arguing that they are crucial for supplying stable output needed to smooth the ups and downs of intermittent renewables. 'This is the first total blackout ever experienced in Spain. It is also the first time that non-synchronous technologies have provided the majority of our electricity,' Sevilla said. He said that under current technology, the grid must maintain a 'synchronous backup capacity' of hydroelectric, gas, or nuclear, which can be called upon when solar and wind are insufficient, either because of their 'intermittency [there may be no sun or wind] or because they lack the synchronism needed for generator stability.' Spain's unified high-voltage transmission Substation equipment, including transformers, is often built for multi-decade operations, up to 40 years. Not all of Spain's substation gear has been swept away in a single upgrade to ready itself for mass net-zero electrification, but there is an ongoing, multi-billion-euro modernization Spain's renewable capacity has also almost Adopting the country's grid infrastructure to net zero will be pricey, considering that the EU's electricity demand is expected to more than double by 2050. Last month, the European Court of Auditors warned that the current pace of planned grid investments was insufficient for future electricity demand and the energy transition. They said that if grid operators keep investing at today's pace, they'll spend 1.8 trillion euros ($2.06 trillion) by 2050, which is below the 1.9 trillion to 2.2 trillion euros the European Commission says is needed.
Sky News AU
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Nuclear expert Adrian Paterson fears Australia in ‘deep danger' after power outages in Spain and Portugal
Nuclear expert Adrian Paterson has raised concerns "an unstable wind plus solar grid" could lead to major blackouts, such as those seen in Spain and Portugal, occurring in Australia The European nations are still working to understand what prompted the almost complete loss of power on Monday, with millions counting the cost of the chaotic disruption. Amid speculation over what caused the blackout, Redeia, which owns Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica de España, warned in February in its annual report that it faced a risk of "disconnections due to the high penetration of renewables without the technical capacities necessary for an adequate response in the face of disturbances". Speaking to Sky News' Andrew Bolt, Mr Paterson argued Australia should be wary about the Albanese government's renewables push in light of the blackouts. 'We are on a road to failure. There's no doubt in my mind. We saw that in Spain just in the last 24 hours, what happens when an unstable wind plus solar grid runs into a problem of having too much,' the former CEO of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation said. 'The whole thing falls over catastrophically because there is no way that you can take dilute sources of power, individual wind turbines, individual panels, and add them up to the grid that we have today that makes our economy work.' Mr Paterson explained the major problem facing renewables was the lack of stable generation, with output fluctuating in line with prevailing conditions. He added the issue was similar to one commonly faced by sailors. 'If you've ever sailed a sailing boat on Sydney Harbour or a little dinghy in a dam, you will know that when the wind is not blowing, you cannot make that boat move forward and when the winds are not blowing and it is not turning the blades of those turbines, no electricity is being produced,' Mr Paterson said. 'So, if you have a four-day east coast low where there's no wind, where there is low cloud and the sunlight is not getting through to the panels, how are we going to get electricity?' Under the Albanese government, Australia has accelerated the rollout of renewable energy sources as part of Labor's ambitious goal of reducing emissions to 43 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030. Over the last decade, the share of electricity generated by renewable energy in Australia has increased significantly, rising from around 10.5 per cent in 2010 to 29 per cent in 2021. Mr Paterson said he feared Australia was entering 'dangerous' territory in terms of the changes occurring in the country's power grid. 'It is so dangerous what is happening to our grid, that it is worth having the debate in public between experts so that the experts can solve this problem, because every expert who is running the grid that we are trying to run in the way that we're trying to run it knows that it cannot be done,' he said. 'We saw it with Spain, and we will see it, in fact, we were already seeing it in Australia. 'The prices are going up in unpredictable ways. If the price was meant to be coming down, why is it going up? If it was meant be minus 275, why is plus 2750?' The Albanese government had previously promised it would reduce household power bills by $275 by 2025. According to the Australian Energy Market Operator the shift towards renewables is growing in Australia through the continual closure of coal plants. 'Coal retirements are occurring faster than announced dates, and may occur even faster than these forecasts,' the agency said in a recent roadmap for the national grid. 'Ownership has become less attractive, with higher operating costs, reduced fuel security, high maintenance costs and greater competition from renewable energy in the wholesale market.' Mr Paterson claimed the path toward net zero would put Australia in "deep danger" as he issued a plea for the government to speak with nuclear experts 'It is deeply, deeply dangerous to have these people looking after our grid and it's going to get worse before it gets better because there's no sign that the signals are getting through to the senior bureaucrats, or to the politicians or to people who advise the people in small rooms,' he said. 'I'm really, really worried. Nobody's picked up the phone to talk to me, I'm quite happy to have small room discussions. 'I know this world. Nobody is picking up the phone. We're in deep danger.'
Boston Globe
30-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
What we know about Monday's sweeping power outage in Spain and Portugal
What happened? Spain and Portugal lost most of their electricity early Monday afternoon. Shortly after 12:30 p.m. local time, Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity — or roughly 60% of demand in the country of 49 million, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. Advertisement There had been two significant 'disconnection events' — or interruptions in power — before the outage, Spain's electric grid operator Red Eléctrica de España said Tuesday. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up While Spain's grid managed to recover from the first event, systems operations director Eduardo Prieto said that the second was more damaging, progressing to the point of interruptions from France's electrical system and producing 'a massive, temporary disconnection.' About three hours before the outage, power quality sensors in homes in the Madrid area showed warning signs of an unstable grid — there were small fluctuations in voltage around 9:30 a.m. local time, Whisker Labs CEO Bob Marshall said Tuesday. The Maryland-based software developer has a couple dozen sensors in homes in and around Madrid, testing the technology for use in Europe for home fire prevention and grid monitoring. Advertisement Instead of normal, steady voltage, Marshall said the data shows there were oscillations whose frequency and magnitude increased over the next three hours until the grid failed. He does not know what caused the instability. Around noon, there was a big jump in the magnitude of the fluctuations, with the voltage measured going up and down by about 15 volts every 1.5 seconds, Marshall said. 'The way I would interpret our data,' Marshall said about Monday's events, 'is that the grid is struggling. Something's wrong. And it's showing increasing signs of instability.' What don't we know? We don't know exactly what caused Monday's fluctuations and eventual failure. 'There's a variety of things that usually happen at the same time, and it's very difficult for any event to say 'this was the root cause,'' said Eamonn Lannoye, managing director at the Electric Power Research Institute, Europe. Lannoye said there was a range of events that can explain grid failures, including that electric grid lines or generators are switched off in some locations for maintenance. 'This could be a really complex event, I think it's fair to say,' Lannoye said. What causes power outages? Power outages can have several triggers, including natural disasters and extreme weather, human-caused disasters, equipment failures, overloading transformers and wires and so on. Electric grids are sensitive to imbalances in the amount of energy generated versus what's used. Enric Bartlett, an energy expert and professor of public law at Spain's Esade business school, likened a grid's supply and demand balance to a tandem bike. 'To avoid falling, everyone must pedal at the same cadence,' Bartlett said. 'Electrical grids are large interconnected systems, and their stability is related to a very close balance between electricity generation and demand,' said Grazia Todeschini, an engineering researcher at King's College London. Advertisement 'If one area is disconnected, it can cause knock-on effects in nearby areas,' she said, adding that while grids have measures in place to limit the impact of outages to small areas, when the imbalance is large, disruptions can spread quickly and far. What have Spain and Portugal's governments said? Authorities in Spain and Portugal have downplayed the idea that a cyberattack was responsible. Spain's High Court said it would investigate to find the cause. On Tuesday, there was renewed attention on Spain's renewable energy generation. The southern European nation is a leader in solar and wind power generation, with more than half of its energy last year having come from renewable sources. Portugal also generates a majority of its energy from renewable sources. Questions remain about whether Spain's heavy renewable energy supply may have made its grid system more susceptible to the type of outage that took place Monday. The thinking goes that non-renewable energy sources, such as coal and natural gas, can better weather the type of fluctuations observed Monday on Spain's grid. That is because renewable energies like solar and wind provide intermittent supply, relying on when the sun is shinning and wind is blowing. However, in recent years batteries that store energy, along with other methods, have helped regulate changes in electricity supply from renewables. Lannoye said it was too early to draw a straight line between Monday's event and Spain's solar power generation. 'I think there's some putting the cart before the horse to say this was solar,' Lannoye said, simply because there was solar power on the grid at the time of the disruption. Advertisement Why was France partially affected? Europe's electric grid is highly connected, meaning that it can pool power between countries. That can make the system more resilient, experts say. It also means a disruption in a major transmission artery or frequency imbalance can trigger cascading protective shutdowns across countries, according to Shreenithi Lakshmi Narasimhan, member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Spain and Portugal are connected to Europe's main electric grid through France. Spain's grid operator on Tuesday said that the sudden drop in power caused an interconnector between Spain and France to trip. Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report from Providence, Rhode Island.
Bloomberg
30-04-2025
- Science
- Bloomberg
Lessons From the First Blackout of the Green Era
Over a century of running the power grid on fossil fuels, we learned many lessons about why, how and when blackouts happen. We now need to learn new lessons about when they're triggered by green energy. On Monday, Spain and Portugal — and a sliver of France — suffered what could come to be known as the first major blackout of the renewable-energy era. More than 50 million people lost power, and electricity didn't return for nearly half a day. We don't yet know the full details, but Red Eléctrica de España, Spain's state-backed grid operator, detailed on Tuesday a tentative timeline of the massive disruption. The company suspects that an initial power failure was 'very likely' due to a solar plant producing less than expected, and seconds later there was a 'massive' drop in other renewable-electricity production. Left unsaid is another critical factor: Spain and Portugal were running their grid with a generation mix that relied heavily on the weather — for more than 75% of output. Few of the old-fashioned generators powered by gas, nuclear, and hydraulic force, which are key to ensuring a stable grid, were running. Spanish and Portuguese authorities have promised a root-cause analysis of the incident, and the lessons should be heeded around the world as most countries embrace solar and wind power — though perhaps not as aggressively as the Iberian nations. Authorities need to focus on how to better integrate growing renewable production into the grid to strengthen resilience, rather than retreat from and dismantle net-zero generation.
Globe and Mail
30-04-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
What we know about Monday's sweeping power outage in Spain and Portugal
MADRID (AP) — The sweeping power outage that hit Spain and Portugal this week has raised questions about the electricity grid in a region not normally known for blackouts. Monday's outage, one of the worst ever in Europe, started in the afternoon and lasted through nightfall, affecting tens of millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula. It disrupted businesses, hospitals, transit systems, cellular networks and other critical infrastructure. Authorities in Spain and Portugal are still investigating exactly what caused the failure, though some information has emerged about happened. Here's what to know: What happened? Spain and Portugal lost most of their electricity early Monday afternoon. Shortly after 12:30 p.m. local time, Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity — or roughly 60% of demand in the country of 49 million, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. There had been two significant 'disconnection events' — or interruptions in power — before the outage, Spain's electric grid operator Red Eléctrica de España said Tuesday. While Spain's grid managed to recover from the first event, systems operations director Eduardo Prieto said that the second was more damaging, progressing to the point of interruptions from France's electrical system and producing 'a massive, temporary disconnection.' About three hours before the outage, power quality sensors in homes in the Madrid area showed warning signs of an unstable grid — there were small fluctuations in voltage around 9:30 a.m. local time, Whisker Labs CEO Bob Marshall said Tuesday. The Maryland-based software developer has a couple dozen sensors in homes in and around Madrid, testing the technology for use in Europe for home fire prevention and grid monitoring. Instead of normal, steady voltage, Marshall said the data shows there were oscillations whose frequency and magnitude increased over the next three hours until the grid failed. He does not know what caused the instability. Around noon, there was a big jump in the magnitude of the fluctuations, with the voltage measured going up and down by about 15 volts every 1.5 seconds, Marshall said. 'The way I would interpret our data," Marshall said about Monday's events, "is that the grid is struggling. Something's wrong. And it's showing increasing signs of instability.' What don't we know? We don't know exactly what caused Monday's fluctuations and eventual failure. 'There's a variety of things that usually happen at the same time, and it's very difficult for any event to say 'this was the root cause,'' said Eamonn Lannoye, managing director at the Electric Power Research Institute, Europe. Lannoye said there was a range of events that can explain grid failures, including that electric grid lines or generators are switched off in some locations for maintenance. 'This could be a really complex event, I think it's fair to say,' Lannoye said. What causes power outages? Power outages can have several triggers, including natural disasters and extreme weather, human-caused disasters, equipment failures, overloading transformers and wires and so on. Electric grids are sensitive to imbalances in the amount of energy generated versus what's used. Enric Bartlett, an energy expert and professor of public policy at Spain's Esade business school, likened a grid's supply and demand balance to a tandem bike. 'To avoid falling, everyone must pedal at the same cadence,' Barlett said. 'Electrical grids are large interconnected systems, and their stability is related to a very close balance between electricity generation and demand," said Grazia Todeschini, an engineering researcher at King's College London. 'If one area is disconnected, it can cause knock-on effects in nearby areas,' she said, adding that while grids have measures in place to limit the impact of outages to small areas, when the imbalance is large, disruptions can spread quickly and far. What have Spain and Portugal's governments said? Authorities in Spain and Portugal have downplayed the idea that a cyberattack was responsible. Spain's High Court said it would investigate to find the cause. On Tuesday, there was renewed attention on Spain's renewable energy generation. The southern European nation is a leader in solar and wind power generation, with more than half of its energy last year having come from renewable sources. Portugal also generates a majority of its energy from renewable sources. Questions remain about whether Spain's heavy renewable energy supply may have made its grid system more susceptible to the type of outage that took place Monday. The thinking goes that non-renewable energy sources, such as coal and natural gas, can better weather the type of fluctuations observed Monday on Spain's grid. That is because renewable energies like solar and wind provide intermittent supply, relying on when the sun is shinning and wind is blowing. However, in recent years batteries that store energy, along with other methods, have helped regulate changes in electricity supply from renewables. Lannoye said it was too early to draw a straight line between Monday's event and Spain's solar power generation. 'I think there's some putting the cart before the horse to say this was solar,' Lannoye said, simply because there was solar power on the grid at the time of the disruption. Why was France partially affected? Europe's electric grid is highly connected, meaning that it can pool power between countries. That can make the system more resilient, experts say. It also means a disruption in a major transmission artery or frequency imbalance can trigger cascading protective shutdowns across countries, according to Shreenithi Lakshmi Narasimhan, member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Spain and Portugal are connected to Europe's main electric grid through France. Spain's grid operator on Tuesday said that the sudden drop in power caused an interconnector between Spain and France to trip. ___
