Spain’s power grid operator has ruled out a cyber attack as the cause of Monday’s massive power cut, which left 60% of the country without electricity for just five seconds. However, the exact reason behind the outage remains unclear.
According to Red Eléctrica, preliminary findings suggest that there was no interference in control systems, echoing Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s statement earlier this week. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said investigators are trying to pinpoint the cause and take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Theories abound about what could have caused the power cut, with experts suggesting it may be related to renewable energy or a mismatch between supply and demand. However, Sánchez later clarified that the issue was not related to excessive renewables, as there was not a failure of coverage and relatively low demand for electricity leading up to the crisis.
Renewable power operators have accurate short-term weather forecasts to predict when wind or solar power will be in surplus, allowing them to adjust their supply accordingly. However, the intermittency of renewable energy can pose challenges, and experts note that it is a well-known issue.
Another theory suggests that the power cut may be linked to Spain’s connection with France, particularly the recent interconnection between the two countries through high-voltage direct current lines. Red Eléctrica also hinted at the possibility of a “rare atmospheric event” being responsible for the outage.
Investigations are ongoing, but the cause of Monday’s power cut remains a mystery, leaving experts and officials to ponder what could have gone wrong.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c209yrl3258o