Blackout in Spain and Portugal: The 4 reasons a network in any country can collapse

Europe’s largest blackout for 20 years in the Iberian Peninsula has caused a lot of chaos to residents of Spain, Portugal and parts of France earlier this week.

But then he raised a common question for governments across the continent: could the same happen here?

Europe’s political leaders and energy system managers have assured that such power cuts are extremely rare and that European electricity networks are one of the most stable in the world.

Blackout can happen anywhere

However, energy experts have warned that, although large -scale power outages can be rare, no network is unmistakable.

Professor Jianzhong Wu, head of the School of Engineering at the University of Cardiff, told the Guardian that power outages « can happen anywhere ».

« Despite today’s high standards of reliability, low -probability blackout events, but high impact can still happen. These networks are not designed to be completely without a blackout, because achieving such a level of credibility would require investments far beyond the financially feasible, « he said.

Charmalee Jayamaha, a senior executive at the UK Government-Backed Energy Systems Catapult, said: « No system can be 100% durable. »

If no electricity system is bulletproof, then what are the risks that could cause a catastrophic blackout in any country? Here we look at the main reasons why an electricity system can collapse.

‘Hand of God’

Large collapses of electricity systems are often due to factors that are difficult to predict or control.

Extreme weather and natural disasters are a clear risk, as thunderstorms, heatwaves and earthquakes can lead to catastrophic damage to critical national infrastructure. Lightning and solar flashes are also known to cause damage to vital equipment, such as substations and energy transport lines, which are vital to maintain network stability.

The first reports of a blackout in Spain were that it was caused by a « rare atmospheric phenomenon » due to a sudden change in temperature, which could have destabilized the network. However, the network manager, Red Eléctrica, later rejected this theory.

Most holidays due to natural disasters are easier to identify. In the US state of Texas, a series of three winter storms in early 2021 caused the freezing of wind farms and electricity production stations, leaving 4.5 million homes and non -electricity businesses for several days.

The risk of such events increases as the climate crisis increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather.

Anthropogenic chaos

Some power outages are entirely anthropogenic. Jayamaha said that geopolitical agents and cyberattacks have the opportunity to cause a « big holiday » on the network. Human error could also play a role.

After the Blackout in Iberia, many wondered if malicious government agencies had targeted the network. However, Red Eléctrica rushed to insist that there were no signs of attack and later ruled out this theory.

However, the danger of a cyberattack on the infrastructure of the electricity network « is not a science fiction », according to Dutch cyber security expert Dave Maasland.

As he told the Dutch press that « attacks on power supplies are possible and have already caused a holiday in the past. » He pointed out Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s electricity system in 2015 and 2016, as well as a failed attempt after its invasion in 2022.

Network malfunctions

In the simplest terms, a power outage is caused when the electricity system stops working: this may be due to an unexpected mechanical dysfunction involving energy lines, substations or other network infrastructures – or a more complex problem with how the system works.

A key concern after Spain’s blackout is the role that renewable energy can play in the collapse of the system. Without a clear explanation for the interruption it is too early to comment, the experts said.

What we know so far is that Spain’s electric system has suffered two major losses in solar -rich solar energy southwest of the country in a matter of seconds, which may have destabilized the connection of the network between Spain and France and eventually led to full power. The initial cause remains under investigation.

It is true that a network rich in renewable energy is more difficult to operate than a network powered by fossil fuels. This is due to the fact that the network was originally designed with the large carbon plants, gas and nuclear power plants. These units have rotating turbines that create inactivity in the system, which helps maintain the frequency of the network at about 50Hz.

Winds and solar parks do not create inactivity in the network, which means that in times of high -production of renewable energy it can be more difficult to maintain the frequency constant if there is a sudden loss of power.

A significant fluctuation of the frequency can cause the generators to be automatically disconnected, leading to the collapse of the system.

Jayamaha said that the shift to renewable energy would require network companies to invest in network stabilization technologies. « The electricity network is undergoing unprecedented changes, as we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and proceed with solutions that are cheaper, better and cleaner. This creates different challenges of durability that we need to manage, « he said.

« The durability is no longer just about the existence of several backup megawatts that you can simply activate, but the correct mix of technologies and capabilities of the system to operate a network with much more renewable energy. »

« Black Swan » event

In many cases, the risk factors described above may coincide, which means that relatively common or innocent events can be combined to create a chain failure that will lead to destruction. These « black swan » events are almost impossible to predict – which means that network exploitation bodies are pressured to prepare for the unexpected.

In August 2019, the United Kingdom suffered the largest blackout of the last decade, leaving nearly 1 million people in England and Wales without electricity and hundreds of people trapped in trains for up to nine hours.

The blah blah after a thunderbolt struck a transport circuit north of London and managed to cause the system to be disabled in two electricity generators that are more than 100 miles apart, within seconds from each other. They described it as a « extremely rare and unexpected event » by the energy system manager.

Lightning strikes in energy infrastructure are relatively common, as are the power outages of electricity production stations, but the impact of the large double interruption on network stability was severe enough to cause dozens of small generators and batteries that used it to use it.

No isolated element of the incident would cause large -scale blackout in itself, but the combination proved to be catastrophic.