LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) – While it may be tempting to blame the unprecedented power outage that hit the Iberian peninsula this week on the rapid growth of wind and solar power in Spain, reliance on renewables is not to blame. Rather, the issue appears to be the management of renewables in the modern grid.
The massive blackout on Monday – the biggest in Europe’s history – should be a stark warning to governments: investments in power storage and grid upgrades must go hand in hand with the expansion of renewables generation.
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Spanish authorities are currently investigating the causes of the huge outage, as power continues to be gradually restored. But here is what we know so far:
At around 12:30 p.m. (1030 GMT), electricity generation in Spain dropped rapidly from around 27 gigawatts to just over 12 GW. The 15 GW loss was equivalent to 10% of Spain’s total installed capacity.
The sudden drop in grid load destabilized electricity flows, which require an extremely stable frequency of 50 Hertz to maintain supply. This, in turn caused a break in the Spanish and French electricity interconnection that goes through the Pyrenees mountains, resulting in the total collapse of the Spanish power system.
Spain exports electricity to Portugal, so the collapse of power in Spain quickly spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Some areas in France also suffered brief outages on Monday.
Spain’s power mix
WHO DONE IT?
The cause of the initial drop that led to the catastrophic cascade of events is unclear, though a collapse in Spain’s solar power system was certainly involved.
Data from Spanish grid operator Red Electrica shows that on Monday solar generation dropped at 12:30 p.m. from around 18 GW to just under 5 GW by 1.35 p.m., so this accounted for the vast majority of the overall drop. But it remains unknown why this occurred or why it caused the entire system to collapse so rapidly.
One possible contributor is the lack of so-called ‘grid inertia’ as a result of the relatively small share of nuclear and fossil fuel generation in Spain’s power mix.
Inertia is the kinetic energy created by the rotation of spinning generators. In the case of a sudden loss of power, this provides a temporary supply of energy that can help maintain grid frequency, thus acting as a shock absorber.
Inverter-based wind and solar power, which generated just under 70% of Spain’s total electricity at the critical moment on Monday, does not involve physical rotation and therefore inertia could not compensate for the sudden loss of power.
An obvious short-term solution to avoid a repeat of the blackout would be to maintain a higher baseload of rotating power generation.
Over the long term, however, power systems will need to invest heavily in battery capacity to store electricity as well as technologies for synchronising the grid that are critical to maintaining the 50 Hz frequency.
In theory, this should be doable, as battery costs have declined sharply in recent years and are being deployed at scale around the world.
But all this would still require heavy investments. While spending on new solar capacity reached around $500 billion last year, investment in grids was only at around $400 billion, becoming bottlenecks for the energy transition, according to the International Energy Agency.
WAKE-UP CALL
While this outage might be unprecedented on the continent, European governments cannot say there were no warning signs.
One growing source of concern related to the management of renewables has been the increase in so-called ‘dunkelflaute’ events across northwest Europe this winter. This refers to extended periods in which levels of both wind and sun decline significantly, limiting the power that can be generated by either.
Up until now, such declines have typically been offset by natural gas power plants. But unless countries want to continue increasing their reliance on natural gas, these droughts will eventually need to be offset by battery storage solutions.
More generally, the outage is a reminder that current grids, particularly in developed economies, are old – very old. Many were built in the 1950s and require urgent upgrades if they are to handle the forecast growth in electricity demand in the coming decades as decarbonisation accelerates.
Just last week, European governments emphasised the importance of such investments at a London summit hosted by the International Energy Agency.
“Delegates called for long-term policy frameworks that anticipate future system needs, including flexible generation, storage demand-side response and regional interconnection,” the IEA said in its closing statement.
“Participants agreed that the future of energy security must also encompass newer dimensions such as cybersecurity, extreme weather events, supply chain resilience for critical minerals and clean technologies, and integration of electrified and decentralised systems.”
The power outage that hit Spain and Portugal should be a wake-up call for both governments and power companies. Developing a modern power grid will require comprehensive investment in the entire power infrastructure, including the unsexy parts that don’t generate headlines – until they stop working.
** The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. **
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By Ron Bousso; Editing by Sonali Paul
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Ron is the Reuters Energy Columnist. He offers commentary on global energy markets and their intersection with geopolitics, the economy and every day life. From oil and gas to solar and wind power, the world’s growing demand for energy is shaping governments’ efforts to expand their economies while the world also seeks to decarbonize. Prior to that, Ron was Oil and Gas Corporates Correspondent at Reuters since 2014, covering the world’s top oil and gas companies and their transition into low carbon energy. He has broken major stories on companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and Exxon. He also looks at the physical oil markets with a focus on European refining.
