“A rare atmospheric phenomenon”, which could take a week. What does the Portuguese electricity operator say about the cause of the major power

The Portuguese operator of electricity, REN, claims that until the current affecting Portugal on Monday, it was caused by a fault of the Electrical Network in Spain, related to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon”, reports the Sky News, quoted by News.ro.

The “rare atmospheric phenomenon” that caused the interruption and disturbance of electricity supply could take a week, said the Portuguese electricity operator.

REN states that, due to extreme temperature variations in Spain, there were “abnormal oscillations” in high voltage lines. This phenomenon is known as “induced atmospheric variation”, which, in turn, led to oscillations that caused synchronization defects between systems.

This has led to successive disturbances throughout the interconnected European network, adds the company.

Also, REN states that, given the complexity of the problem, it could take up to a week until the network returns to normal.

Still unknown causes

On the other hand, Spanish officials said that the possibility of the current – who affected Spain, Portugal and for a short time, is not excluded – to have been caused by a cyber attack.

The European Commission has transmitted that it is in contact with the authorities in Spain and Portugal and with the European network of Transport Systems operators to try to establish the cause of the interruption.

The operator of the Spanish electrical grid has not yet responded to this hypothesis formulated by REN, nor did he provide updated information on the causes of the interruption.

However, it is unlikely that the interruption was caused by a single located event, according to Sky News. A breakdown at an important electric line can cause a large -scale interruption (as happened in 2021, when an interconnection between France and Spain gave up, leaving a million people without electricity for several hours), but it is unlikely to cause a system level, such as the one we see now, the Sky News.

Chain reactions

However, when things begin to defect themselves in an electricity, they can cause an uncontrollable chain reaction.

Maintaining a network in operation is a constant and extremely complex balance.

The main network of alternating current power supply in Spain operates at 50 Hz. This frequency is based on the speed of rotation of generation equipment, such as gas and nuclear turbines. If sudden fluctuations in electricity supply or demand (for example, a defective power plant or a defective high voltage line) appear, the frequency of the alternative current in the transport lines is changed and the circuit switches are triggered to protect the transport network or the equipment of the combustion power plant.

In order to prevent such malfunctions, network engineers constantly measure and forecast the offer and the request, to maintain the balance of the network.

In order to protect the system in emergency situations, they must “reduce the task” by interrupting the electricity supply of some parts of the network – the reason why we all occasionally experienced short -term current. But if the balance is lost, the network can fall into a domino effect, with sections of the network that fall into collapse, then the power plants stop to protect the demand, one after the other.

Could take longer

The current challenge, which is a nightmare for energy engineers in Spain and Portugal, is to gradually restore the network, a section section, while maintaining the balance between demand and offer.

If it acts too quickly, the network can collapse again. If it acts too slowly, some power plants or substances may have difficulties in restart, especially if they depend on batteries to work.

Although in some regions of Spain the power supply has already been restored, and Portugal states that the power will return to normal in a few hours, the complete restoration of the system could take much longer.