This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:
Hibapress
The electrical breakdown having struck the Iberian peninsula on April 28, the result of a “overvoltage phenomenon” that has sparked “a chain reaction” on the network, according to a report made public by the Spanish government on Tuesday.
“The cut of April 28 last had a multifactorial origin, that is to say that a combination of factors played a role,” said the Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, during a press briefing at the end of the Council of Ministers, specifying that the failure resulted in disconnections from several electricity production sites having in turn “provoked new disconnections”.
The Minister noted that “complex phenomena” are at the origin of the incident, pointing the responsibility of the manager of the Spanish network REE as well as certain energy operators having, according to her, “disconnected their power plants inappropriately to protect their facilities”.
She added that the system did not have a sufficient voltage control capacity that day, including a programming defect, noting, however, that Spain has in principle a “solid” network to cope with such situations.
“We have reached a point of no return with an uncontrollable chain reaction, which could only have been contained with adequate preventive measures,” she continued.
In the aftermath of the breakdown, which had plunged Spain and Portugal into the dark for several hours and caused major disturbances in transport, the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, had announced the creation of a commission of inquiry managed by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, by calling for “not speculating” before the publication of the results.
