Physical Address

304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124

How Spain brought back to life from unprecedented National Black -Out


Paul Kirby

Europe Digital Editor

View: Disruption continues in Madrid while the power resumes

While life in Spain and Portugal is normally stuttering again, the big questions are not only what went wrong, but how can it prevent such a full power error from happening again.

It was only at 11:15 am (9:15 GMT) on Tuesday, almost 23 hours after the system collapsed that the Spain’s electricity grid stated that it was normal again.

The trains started running again, although some lines have been suspended and most houses have their strength back.

So how is the weather taken into use and why did it take so long?

Spain was in chaos most of Monday.

The issue seems to relate to two separate connection problems in the southwest in moments of each other and then a disconnection of the French network for almost an hour.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez emphasized the sudden loss of 15 Gigawatt electricity at 12:33 on Monday, when about 60% of Spain’s power generation suddenly disappeared.

Graphic suddenly shows power loss in Spain

Eduardo Prieto, the operations director for the schedule, Red Eléctrica, said that the systems had been stable, to two “decoupling” incidents within a few seconds in the southwest, where Spain has a substantial solar generation.

Only the Canary Islands, the Balearics and Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast were not influenced.

An increasing number of public figures blames a saturation of solar energy and a transmission of renewable energy.

Minutes before the malfunction, Spain ran at 60.64% solar photovoltaic generation, with 12% wind and 11.6% nuclear.

Reuters people stand in line for a train on a platform in MadridReuters

The Madrid Metro was back in use by Tuesday

No matter how diversified and advanced Spain’s energy mix is, the national strength collapsed on Monday at 12:35.

The first focus was to have the northern and southern current-generating regions work again, which, according to the Raster operator Red Eléctrica, was the key to “gradually reinforce the transmission grid because the generating units are connected”.

The risk was in overloading the system by switching on everything at the same time and activating a new mass malfunction.

So everything had to be carefully phased for what experts call a “black start” as a success.

The first focus was on hydroelectric plants, in particular pumped storage plants with reservoirs full at this time of the year and able to quickly produce electricity from a standing start.

Cycle cycle gas plants also played an important role in restoring the grid, but four nuclear reactors at Almaraz, ASCó and and Vandellós were automatically closed by the malfunction, and three others were already offline anyway.

EPA people use candles in a pub in Ourense, Galicia, Northwest -Spain, amid a power outage, April 28EPA

Power gradually returned to all regions of Spain at night

The neighbors of Spain France and Morocco also came to the rescue.

Morocco said that 900 MW of power had been transmitted by two high-voltage lines that cross the Strait of Gibraltrar from Fardioua to Tarifa in southern Spain.

The French operator RTE said that it “gradually transferred more electricity to the Spanish border” via its high -voltage lines that Catalonia deliver in northeastern Spain and the Basque Country in the northwest.

RTE said that the Iberian network was disconnected on Monday from 12:38 to 13:30, when the 400KV line was restored to Catalonia. Within a few minutes, France had delivered 700 MW and RTE said that it was later able to increase that by a maximum of 2,000 MW.

The power was then eventually restored to the electricity stations of Spain in the north, south and west of the peninsula.

By 19:20 on Monday, the grid operator said that more than one fifth of the question had been restored through the own electricity generation of Spain and from France.

Electricity provider Endesa said it had restored nearly 3.5 million customers by 19:15 and had given priority to hospitals and other strategic infrastructure.

A little more than an hour later, the head of Red Eléctrica -Baas Eduardo Prieto said that about 9,200 MW of question – about 35.1% – had recovered.

That figure rose steadily to 61.35% by midnight on Monday and more than 99% at 7:00 am on Tuesday.

Spain is only now starting to count the costs. The organization of the Ceu bosses has estimated a hit of € 1.6 billion on the economy.

And the political game game has already begun.

The conservative head of the Madrid community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, said that the government’s answer had been slow and ineffective, while the leader of her folk festival Alberto Núñez Feijóo complained about a “regrettable” image of Spain that was sent all over the world.

Despite all the problems, Spaniards were praised by the government because they achieved the opportunity and showed solidarity.

Hospitals had a backup of diesel-processed generators, so that they were able to maintain critical care.

The civil police of Spain said it had saved 13,000 passengers in trains.

Residents in the southern city of Villanueva de Córdoba came to the help of passengers stranded on an Ouigo train.

The local police in Barcelona returned to the old ways and regulated the traffic in the Plaça España because the lights were off.

Passengers on the Barcelona metro had to walk to safety using the torches on their mobile phones when their trains got stuck in tunnels.

A conference center in Girona was converted into a hiding place with 180 beds for people stranded by rail disturbances.

Although flights were hit throughout the country, airport operator Aena continued during the disturbance with the help of generators.

Telephone batteries ended, TVs were wink and for many Spaniards their only lifeline on the outside world came from a car or on batteries operated radio, while radio stations by the black-out soldiers.

In Madrid there has been an urgent call for blood donations prior to the big holiday weekend.

Pedro Sánchez has been established that lessons will be drawn and such a crisis will no longer happen.

But energy expert Carlos Cagigal told the Spanish TV that there was a risk that it could be, because the infrastructure of Spain was simply unable to cope with all the renewable energy produced.

The Power Grid operator warned earlier this year to the risks of excessive renewable energy and at the same time nuclear power stations.

But a clip from his president Beatriz Corredor has become viral from 2021, in which she insisted that Spain “had one of the safest and most advanced” electrical systems in the world and there was no reason to worry.

    A thin, gray banner that promotes the daily newsletter. On the right there is an image of an orange sphere with two concentric half moon around it in a red-orange gradient, like a sound wave. The banner reads: "The latest news in your inbox first thing.

Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Register here.



Source link