Cause of While the blackouts for millions without electricity have yet to be fully decided on Monday in Spain and Portugal, services have now recovered for 99% of the Iberian Peninsula. Red Electrica, a public company that operates Spanish transmission infrastructure, has previously ruled out cyberattacks, human error, or unusual weather and air conditions as the cause of the outage. The company notes that the incident may stem from two “generational cuts” that may be related to the inherent volatility of renewable energy sources.
Experts emphasize that this type of total power outage (exceptional and rare events) is also a security mechanism for the power system itself. For the grid to operate stably, energy production must be balanced with consumption. Imbalances can cause power outages and potentially damaged infrastructure.
Maintaining grid balance is the responsibility of the system operator to monitor parameters such as electrical frequencies, voltages, and loads from substations in real time. If there is a significant discrepancy between generation and demand, automatic cutting is activated in certain areas of the grid to avoid imbalances. In the most serious situations, the effects of these triggered disconnects can be extended across the network.
“This generalized blackout occurred because more than half of its power generation capacity was lost in just five seconds,” said Alvaro de la Puente Gill, professor of electrical engineering at Leon University’s Mining Engineering Department. Science Media Centre (SMC) in Spain. The grid was protected by automatic disconnection from both internal and other European grids, as it was unable to balance such a sudden drop between generation and demand.
In a comment to the SMC, Miguel de Simon Martin, professor of electrical engineering at Leon University, explains that the balance of the grid is usually guaranteed by three things. The first is a complex network of interconnected lines called meshes that distribute electrical currents throughout the grid to prevent overload. Second, there is interconnection with the grids of neighboring countries. This allows energy to be imported or exported as needed to balance production and demand.
Finally, there is what is called “mechanical inertia.” Synchronous generators – large spinners that generate electricity at power plants – also store a lot of energy in very large rotating parts. For example, imagine a coal-fired power plant. Even if the coal is stopped burning and generates more electricity, the huge, heavy turbines used to create electricity will continue to spin for a while due to the energy stored in them. This phenomenon known as mechanical inertia can act as a buffer for sudden fluctuations within the grid. If there is an imbalance between energy generation and demand, the synchronous generator acts as a shock absorber to the grid by increasing or decreasing rotational speeds to balance things, absorbing or releasing energy when necessary.
“Large mesh grids with strong interconnections and rich synchronous generators tend to be more stable and less likely to fail,” says DeSimón Martín. Geographical barriers in the Pyrenees. ”
