On April 28, there was a power failure throughout Spain and Portugal. It caused huge chaos, serious traffic problems and the exclusion of telecommunications systems. It also briefly lasted in southwestern France and Morocco. After an intensive investigation, it became clear how it happened.
The reason found
The overvoltage is a sudden and short -term increase in voltage in the electrical installation. When the electrical voltage on the network is too high, security systems turn off part of the network, which can lead to extensive power failures.
Aagesen said on Tuesday that on the day of the power failure there was a lack of “sufficient power to regulate voltage”, which was partly caused by a programming error. She assured that theoretically the Spanish energy network is stable enough to deal with this situation.
The minister explained that the overvoltage resulted in the exclusion of several power plants, which in turn “caused further exclusion”. Some energy companies “inadequate way” disconnected their power plants from the network, “to protect their installations”. The REE operator also played a role here, which did not react on time and did not prevent further failures.
