patch

The patch to avoid another massive blackout is going to cost us 731 million euros. Iberdrola has already begun to collect it

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The blackout on April 28 did not come free, and we consumers are going to pay for it. Iberdrola has confirmed that the extra cost caused by the “reinforced mode” that was activated after the massive blackout. And everything indicates that the rest of the electric companies will follow in their footsteps. what has happened. They tell it in The World. Until now, the impact of the blackout on the bill had been limited because the CNMC intervened so that the electricity companies could not modify the price for customers who have contracted fixed rates. FACUA also issued a statement warning that rates could not be raised if it did not appear in the contract. The blackout was more than six months ago, more than enough time for many free market contracts to have been renewed. This has given Iberdrola the opportunity to introduce clauses that allow them to pass the cost on to customers. Reinforced mode After the blackout, the so-called “reinforced mode” was activated. This adjustment involves intervening in the market to incorporate more conventional energy (gas, hydroelectric and nuclear) and limiting the entry of renewables with the aim of avoiding voltage failures. And of course, these energies are more expensive, in addition to requiring more auxiliary services to stabilize the network. The problem is that this It started as a patch after the blackout, but it has become the new normal which remains half a year later. The cost. It covers from the blackout until September and amounts to 210 million euros distributed between Spain and Portugal. Of this sum, Spain assumes the majority, with 180 million euros. Iberdrola regrets that the change in the system by Red Eléctrica is entailing an extra cost that “affects our results” and they hope to transfer 70% of this amount to their clients before the end of the year. Not just Iberdrola. Nothing prevents the rest of the electricity marketers from following in Iberdrola’s footsteps. According to El Mundo, the total cost of the reinforced mode in these six months amounts to 731 million euros and it looks like it will remain active for longer, so this amount will increase. The CNMC warns that any change in contract prices must be communicated transparently. From one pocket to another. In the Iberian Peninsula there are five nuclear power plants, 1,300 hydroelectric plants and some 200 gas plants. These conventional (non-renewable) energy plants are providing more energy as long as the boosted mode remains active and they are receiving more income for it. What is striking is that they mostly belong to private companies such as Iberdrola, Naturgy either Endesawho are the ones who will end up increasing the price of the invoice. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Five months later we continue to discover things about the blackout in Spain. And the news is getting worse for Europe

A patch updates the debate on difficult games

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The high difficulty of ‘Hollow Knight: Silksong‘One of the issues that to those of the players has once again put in the arena: The very high difficulty. Is it necessary? Should titles such as SOULIKE or this same ‘Silksong’ your demands to be more accessible, or if it is a design decision, the right thing is that they remain as its creators have decided? In any case, Team Cherry has heard the complaints of the players and will be predicted to the desperate difficulty of its successful Metroidvania. Difficult that you spend. Many players, even experienced adventurers who were already tanned from the original and quite demanding ‘Hollow Knight’ have noticed that ‘Silksong‘proposes a considerably higher challenge: from fighting (already overcome the first Boss final It is a challenge that has given to speak) to the platform mechanics, through more lethal enemies, a more complex combat system and, above all, a structure that does not forgive failures and that can force the painful player to repeat paths that he has already traveled. But why. It is no longer that enemies do more damage with their blows or have more resistance to the player’s envies. It is rather that ‘Silksong’ demands to be very cautious since the same start of the game, where they are already on the advanced mechanical table of the genre Metroidvaniaand above all, that there is a combat design that hinders things. As Polygon saidfor example, the protagonist hits down diagonally, which makes it more difficult to control her blows in this direction. It is not a matter of skill: we have to relear mechanics that we take for grasses in the genre. Team Cherry recognizes it. However, the creators of the game recognize that The game could be more balancedespecially at the first levels. Therefore Team Cherry announces that will launch an update of the game that will arrive in the mid -week and that will adjust the difficulty of the start. Of course, the game is not going to become a walk, something that would make him lose his personality, but the Australians pretend that no one despairs in those first measures. The players will see the rewards of rosaries and reduced the damage inflicted by some enemies. Difficulty and damage to the Moorwing and Sister Splinter (a key enemy, since it provides the ability to jump bouncing on the wall, essential to advance) will also be moderated. PC users already have the patch available in Steam and GOG. If you like to suffer. Do not worry if you have masochistic trends: Silksong includes a secret mode, ‘Steel of steel‘, which is played to the highest level of difficulty and with permanent death. This mode is unlocked at the end of the game, but the wasp community has discovered a combination of buttons (legendary and easy to guess, everything must be said) that allows you to activate it from the beginning, offering an extreme challenge for the most skilled. Neither patch nor parcha. The eternal debate. He debate about high difficulty in video games It is recurring: on the one hand, there are those who defend the unique difficulty that the creator sets so that the game is a challenge, looking for the satisfaction that generates overcoming difficult obstacles. On the other hand, there are accessibility apologettes that demand adjustable modes for all audiences to enjoy the game, regardless of their level of skill. This debate also involves how difficulty peaks affect the experience: some players consider them a bad design that frustrates, while others look for these peaks as treasures that create memorable challenges. In Xataka | This game dared to go on sale the same day as ‘Silksong’. All he got was attracting 12 players in his debut

What began as a patch after the blackout is already the new normality of Spain: more energy through gas

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After the blackout of April 28, which exposed the fragility of the electrical system at times of high renewable penetration, Red Electrica has imposed a new way of operating: A reinforcement system based on greater activation of combined gas cycles. What was born as an emergency measure has become a new normality. Spain returns to gas, not due to lack of renewables, but because – for now – it cannot only trust them. And it will stay for a while … Since the end of April, the system operator maintains a reinforced operating mode to guarantee stability. Such as has confirmed ELECTRICAL TO ELECONOMISTA.es, this measure will remain in force while the technical solutions agreed to avoid new incidents are implemented. The incident report concludes that there was a lack of dynamic control on the network, unexpected disconnections and vulnerabilities in tension regulation. The first changes are already underway: Royal Decree-Law 7/2025 He has started A battery of reforms, from the incentive of storage to the flexibility of access for hybrid facilities. However, the sector coincides: the total implementation will take time. Some urgent measures have a deadline until September, but others – as the reform of adjustment services or changes in the distribution network – will be extended until June 2026. Reinforcement, therefore, is not transitory. Renewable yes, but they are not enough. And this situation occurs in a fairly paradoxical context. Spain is producing more energy than ever: in May the lowest wholesale prices in recent history were recorded –With many hours in negative prices-, thanks to the thrust of wind, solar and hydraulic. So, the question comes back: why does it return to gas? The key is in the foul storage and demand variability. The renewable generation is abundant during the day, but it falls dramatically at dusk, just when consumption remains high by heat waves. No batteries or pumping To store the surplusThe system needs firmness. And that firmness, today, gives it the gas. They have just launched an “antiapages insurance.” The government is aware of the risk. That is why he has formally activated the implementation of capacity markets, a tool that had been studying for years and now accelerates after the blackout. It is a mechanism that remunerates for being available, not only to produce, and that seeks to keep firm technologies operational – like gas or storage – to guarantee the supply even in critical conditions. After the authorization included in Royal Decree-Law 7/2025, the Ministry for Ecological Transition You can give way to the specific resolution that sets two key parameters to activate these mechanisms: the lost load value (Voll), at € 22,879/MWh, and a reliability standard (Lole) of 1.5 hours a year. The objective of the Executive is clear: launch the first auctions before the end of 2025 and ensure that the gas plants that requested their closure (9,000 MW in total) can remain available while a structural solution arrives. And prices rise again. June closed with an important rebound in the wholesale price of electricity, after the historical minimums of April and May. The heat wave, the increase in demand and the greater participation of the combined gas cycles fired the average cost in the market to levels not seen in months. The consumers’ invoice with regulated rate has noticed it: it has been the third consecutive monthly climb, According to the official CNMC simulator data. In addition, in the free market, some marketers are transferring these cost overruns to their customers, even without a contractual clause that allows it. This has motivated A FACUA WARNINGwhich remembers that raising rates unilaterally is illegal if it is not expressly foreseen in the contract. In some cases, surcharges of up to 6 % per year have been notified under the argument of greater technical costs, which could constitute an abusive clause according to consumer defense regulations. Structural challenge. The April blackout uncovered deficiencies that were already there: an excessively centralized system, little storage, few micro -redes and little local reaction capacity to disturbances. The solution does not go through abandonable, but by complementing them. The gas, for now, plays that role. But the challenge is to do so in the future the storage, demand management and a more robust network. That requires difficult time, investment and political decisions. Image | Pexels and Pixabay Xataka | Broady in April, more expensive invoice in May: thus has affected the system reinforcement

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