Spain’s Power Utilities Lay Blackout Blame on Grid Operator

An unlit street during a power outage in Molins de Rei, Spain, on April 28. Photo by Angel Garcia /Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — Spanish power companies laid the blame for April’s crippling blackout squarely with the country’s grid operator, saying it hadn’t lined up enough backup plants to safeguard supplies.

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Red Electrica didn’t ensure a sufficient number of plants were available on standby, industry group AELEC said in a report on Monday.

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The April 28 blackout, which cut power to more than 50 million people on the Iberian Peninsula for several hours, has triggered a fierce blame game between political parties and energy companies. Earlier this month, the government faulted Red Electrica for failing to ensure enough backup generation, as well as power-plant operators for not fulfilling their commitments on the day. 

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The grid operator has accused the power companies of failing to help keep voltage steady, a charge not addressed by AELEC in Monday’s report. The group said only that its members, which include Iberdrola SA and Endesa SA, “acted in accordance with the requirements” set out in current regulation, “fully complying at all times with the orders issued by the system operator.”

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A Red Electrica spokesperson wasn’t immediately available to comment on Monday. The grid operator on June 18 said it managed the network properly on the day of the incident.

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The new study follows the publication last week of two more reports on the blackout, and adds one more chapter to the recriminations between power companies, the grid operator and the cabinet.

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Monday’s report said that only 11 thermal stations were operating on the day of the blackout, the lowest number this year, and that only one was operating in southern Spain when over-voltage was recorded. Still, AELEC didn’t respond specifically to accusations that almost all of those plants didn’t perform properly by helping the grid operator manage voltage with what’s known as reactive power, as the government and Red Electrica had previously found.

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Data on whether plants performed properly are confidential and are currently being analyzed by Spanish competition watchdog CNMC, said AELEC’s Head of Regulation Marta Castro.  

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AELEC’s document claims that steps taken by Red Electrica ahead of the blackout worsened the electricity system’s voltage control issues. The decision to connect various transport lines from noon — about half an hour before the blackout — ended up “weakening the system” and “worsened the over-voltage existing minutes before the blackout.”

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The report also said that the interconnection with France may have been mismanaged, and questions why Red Electrica decided not to rely on five available hydropower plants to stabilize voltage in an effort to avert the outage.

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—With assistance from John Deane.

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(Updates with more details from report starting in seventh paragraph.)

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