usatoday24
Huenaja, a small Granada town of just 1,100 inhabitants and with more than 700 megawatts installed of solar energy, It was the zero zone of the blackout of April 28. In seven seconds, everything It was plunged into a total collapse. Now the expert committee of the European Network of Transmission Systems Operators (Entso-E) has identified Two questions.
The investigation. For more than six weeks, this European agency has worked to find the causes of the blackout, apart from the Electricity of Spain and its Portuguese homologous, Ren. According to the reporthalf an hour before collapse, two episodes of power and frequency oscillations were recorded in the European continental network. The Iberian Peninsula, connected to the continent mainly through lines with France, began to lose synchronism.
A new detail. The ETSO-E has pointed out that at 12:16 and 12:22, there was a change in interconnection with France: a system with dynamic control (hiking of direct current) was passed to a fixed export mode of 1,000 MW to the Gallic country. According to the experts consulted, this decision left the Spanish system without support for synchronous power, which reduced its margin of action before oscillations.
As a piece of dominoes. Almost in parallel, Ree made an internal connection of lines in southern Spain, which, According to Entso-ewould have caused surge located in areas such as Huenaja (Granada), Valdecaballeros (Badajoz) and Don Rodrigo (Seville). Several electrical plants then activated their automatic protections, disconnecting to avoid damage. This further aggravated the tension in the network, triggering a chain reaction: generation falls, frequency loss and total disconnection of the Iberian system of the rest of Europe.
Was any system activated? System defense plans, automatic mechanisms designed to stop these processes, were activated, according to has confirmed The report. However, they were not able to contain the fall due to the speed and intensity of the event. At 12:18:47, the interconnection lines between Spain and France were disconnected by protection against the loss of synchronism. At that moment, the peninsula was isolated and collapsed completely.
A major debate. This crisis has uncovered a great conflict at the technical and political level, while responsibilities They pass like a hot potato. The debate is intensified around the backup systems and the penetration of renewable energy.
On the one hand, nuclear plants They were criticized For disconnecting, but three were in scheduled stop, and the others operated normally until the system collapsed, activating protection protocols. On the other hand, the lack of inertia of the system has been stated again. Not synchronous renewable energies, such as solar and wind, They do not contribute inertia to the electrical systemwhich makes it difficult to stop sudden frequency falls. However, blaming renewables would be to simplify excessively. However, the technical report is clear: it was not exclusive fault of renewables, but a systemic failure, aggravated by operational decisions and structural limitations such as low international interconnection.
An interconnection problem. The blackout has evidence They have demanded France that is committed to concrete deadlines and binding actions to advance in electrical interconnection corridors.
What comes now. The Entso-E expert panel continues their research and have created A web page for this. Now they will meet on June 23 and will be delivered to the European Commission. Meanwhile, the event leaves an awkward lesson: in an increasingly renewable and decentralized electrical system, technical coordination, The operational resilience and cross -border planning They are more crucial than ever.
Image | Unspash
Xataka | Spain and Portugal are tired of promises: they ask France to leave the electric alley
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings