Ren says blackout was impossible to stop at the border

The REN executive administrator has no doubt that the whole sector did the homework well. However, this Wednesday said João Conceição, the data show that the blackout that originated in Spain was impossible to wage on the border.

A month after the incident that cut the supply of electricity in Portugal and Spain, João Conceição assured that they already have more information than those that are public. However, it considers that “it would not be correct” to share that there are several investigations ongoing.

The manager spoke at the seminar “Supply Security in Portugal”, which took place in Lisbon, within the scope of World Energy Day that is marked this Thursday.

However, he said that there is a fact that can already confirm: « originated in Spain. »

In addition, the administrator of the national electrical networks manager has advanced with more technical details to maintain that the disastling systems – eating of some consumptions to avoid overload of the system – functioned.

« The size of the problem is that it was such a violent order that there are no possible mitigating measures to stop on the border, » he said. Therefore, « the blackout is given, » he added, quoted by the agency Lusa.

On Wednesday, May 28, REN-National Energy Networks and E-Redes handed over the sector regulator (ERSE) the report on the electric blackout of April 28, and both request that it is considered “exceptional event”.

Already the director of the Directorate General of Energy and Geology (DGEG), Paulo Carmona, commented that the recent blackout « served as a very important test for the resilience of the electric system » and to see if the ‘Blackstart’ worked. « 

Following the blackout, centrally enabled centers with Autonomous Autonomous Capacity (Blackstart), such as those of Bode and Tapada do Outeiro Castle. ERSE has already determined to hire two more centrals with this capacity – low flavor and also – that should go into operation from January 1, 2026.

« It was a » check up « to prepare for a really bad event as a sabotage, » added the DGEg official.