Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout

From	"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.misc
Subject	Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout
Date	2025-09-30 19:19 +0200
Message-ID	<n1gtqlxlvf.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> (permalink)
References	<10bejip$35i1j$7@dont-email.me>

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On 2025-09-29 20:36, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzCiEHGVMwA
>
>
Or you could read other accepted reports, including the official one (posted previously on sci.electronics.design)

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/17/expert-report-rules-out-cyber-attack-for-spain-and-portugal-april-blackout>

*Spanish minister rules out cyber-attack as cause of April blackout, after expert report*

System failure caused by network’s inability to control grid voltage said to be behind outage in Spain and Portugal

The unprecedented blackout that brought the Iberian peninsula to a standstill at the end of April was caused by surging voltages triggering “a chain reaction of disconnections” that shut down the power network, an expert report commissioned by the Spanish government has found.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, the country’s environment minister, Sara Aagesen, ruled out a cyber-attack as the cause of the outage on 28 April, saying it had been down to a “multifactorial” system failure caused by the network’s inability to control grid voltage.

(read the rest on the link if desired, it is in English)

<https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62d8k8edgxo>

*Spain's government blames huge blackout on grid regulator and private firms*
3 hours ago
Guy Hedgecoe
BBC News in Madrid

The Spanish government has said that the national grid operator and private power generation companies were to blame for an energy blackout that caused widespread chaos in Spain and Portugal earlier this year.

...

Nearly two months after the unprecedented outage, the minister for ecological transition, Sara Aagesen, has presented a report on its causes.

She said the partly state-owned grid operator, Red Eléctrica, had miscalculated the power capacity needs for that day, explaining that the "system did not have enough dynamic voltage capacity".

The regulator should have switched on another thermal plant, she said, but "they made their calculations and decided that it was not necessary".

Aagesen also blamed private generators for failing to regulate the grid's voltage shortly before the blackout happened.

"Generation firms which were supposed to control voltage and which, in addition, were paid to do just that did not absorb all the voltage they were supposed to when tension was high," she said, without naming any of the companies responsible.

(read the rest on the link if desired, it is in English)

<https://www.eldiario.es/economia/informe-apagon-detecta-centrales-no-estaban-regulando-tension-desconexion-indebida-instalaciones_1_12391582.html>

Translated article (by DeepL)

*The blackout report detects power plants that ‘were not regulating voltage’ and an ‘undue’ disconnection of installations.*

The historic energy blackout was due to ‘a combination of factors’: there were plants “available” to regulate voltage that were not doing so ‘according to the regulations’ and there were plants that were disconnected ‘improperly’, according to Aagesen
- The government gives an ultimatum to the electricity sector due to its delays in providing data on the blackout.

Antonio M. Vélez
17 June 2025 13:58 h Updated 17/06/2025 17:02 h
14-18 minutes

A phenomenon of ‘overvoltages’ and a ‘chain reaction’ caused by ‘a combination of factors’ of several agents in the sector, with a plant that is not available and Red Eléctrica (REE) does not decide to replace it; generation plants that ‘were not regulating voltage’ as required by the regulations and an ‘improper’ disconnection of facilities. These are the causes of the historic blackout on 28 April, as explained this Tuesday by the Third Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen.

At a press conference after presenting the report drawn up by the committee investigating the very serious energy blackout, approved this morning by the National Security Council, Aagesen explained that one of the causes of the blackout is that the system ‘did not have sufficient voltage control capacity’.

The thermal generation groups that had to do so, ‘many of them’ paid financially, ‘did not contribute’ to doing so because the plants ‘were not programmed’ properly. It should be remembered that for at least five years the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has been planning to approve a regulation to regulate this issue. The current one is ‘obsolete’, as the regulator itself has acknowledged.

Aagesen insisted that ‘there are several causes’ of the blackout. One of them is ‘poor voltage regulation capacity’, due to ‘poor planning’ or because ‘some operators’ were not complying with the regulations.

The result of this deficient voltage control is that this parameter ‘did not stop rising’ that morning and the disconnections of plants began. Also the ‘smaller’ ones, which the system operator, REE, ‘cannot see because they are in the distribution network’. After a first disconnection in Granada and those already known in Badajoz and Seville, there are more disconnections that had not been revealed until now in Segovia, Huelva and Cáceres.

According to Aagesen, ‘some of these disconnections occurred improperly’, i.e. before reaching the overvoltage levels allowed by the regulations, and other disconnections occurred ‘within the authorised limits to protect the installations’. And from there to a massive ‘blackout’ within five seconds, with a ‘chain reaction’ against which there was ‘nothing to be done’.

In the first phase of voltage instability, on the eve of the blackout, REE asked 10 power plants ‘spread throughout the territory’ that were not matched by the market to enter the so-called system of technical restrictions in order to control the voltage. But that Sunday afternoon, one of the planned plants was declared ‘unavailable’.

Faced with this change, the system operator has to ‘readjust’ and decides to ‘reschedule but not replace’ that plant: it only does so at dawn. The report does not identify this plant because it is ‘anonymised’ at the express request of the companies, according to sources from Transición Ecológica.

The Vice-President called for ‘reflection’ by ‘all the agents’ in the electricity system but did not want to point out responsibilities, which is something that will occur in ‘the next phase’: it will be ‘the administrative and judicial procedures’ that will have to establish them, in reference to the decisions that the CNMC may take and the proceedings that are already underway in the National Court.

On the day of the blackout, from 10.30 a.m. onwards, voltage instability intensified, although ‘within the limits’ set by the regulations, with various calls from the control centres. At 12:03 a.m. an ‘atypical’ oscillation arrived, with a higher than normal frequency.

The system operator links it to ‘a specific installation and its anomalous behaviour’; it takes “effective” measures to dampen it but the ‘meshing of the grids’ and the low demand contribute to ‘an increase in voltage’; it also reduces the export of energy to France, which means that generation in Spain falls and voltage rises.

At 12.16 this oscillation reappears and ‘dampens again’. Another oscillation occurs at 12.19 which is absorbed and the result is a negative effect ‘on system voltage’. It is decided to connect a power plant in the southern zone but it will take ‘an hour and a half’ to connect. And the disconnections of plants begin.

Aagesen announced that the next Council of Ministers will approve a Royal Decree-Law with a package of measures to ensure that the incident ‘does not happen again’. It will ‘accelerate the implementation’ of the National Energy Commission (CNE) announced more than a year ago; the ‘supervision and verification’ of system agents will be strengthened, storage will be promoted and the CNMC will approve these regulations to allow renewables to control voltage, as requested by REE in 2021.

Aagesen explained that in the analysis of the operation of the system, more than 100 requests for information were made, with more than 700 requests and millions of data in 170 GB of information.

The report includes a first phase of voltage instabilities, also in the ‘days prior’ to the blackout, a second phase of system oscillations (in the half hour prior to the outage), another of generation losses, and the subsequent collapse of the electricity system. A ‘complex, delicate’ analysis with “contradictory” data and ‘information that in the end has not arrived’. These ‘omissions’ have been ‘made explicit in the report’ that will be published this afternoon.

From the point of view of cybersecurity, it has been concluded that ‘there is no evidence of cyber-incident or cyber-attack as a cause of the energy crisis, neither in the operator nor at the different levels’.

However, ‘vulnerabilities’ and ‘shortcomings’ have been identified in the systems in the face of potential risks that will be “exploited” to issue recommendations for the future, following ‘the largest investigation into cybersecurity that has ever taken place in our country’, with more than 1600 hours of work, more than a thousand IP, more than 133 GB and fourteen operators analysed: from the system operator to the more than 30 control centres of the distributors throughout the country; and a third level ‘of detail’ of the generation facilities.

Some conclusions will be brought to the attention of the CNMC: those issues that should be brought to the CNMC's attention. The report, due to a ‘confidentiality obligation’ has “anonymised” information, ‘on most occasions’ at the request of the actors involved. Aagesen is due to appear before the Official Secrets Committee this week.

The report has been presented 49 days after the blackout, ‘practically half the time Europe gives to present its report to the EU’ and much earlier than expected.

Aagesen had promised that the document would be ready within three months of the incident, but in recent days (in parallel to the explosion of the scandal of alleged corruption of Santos Cerdán, now ex-Secretary of Organisation of the PSOE) the meetings of the inter-ministerial committee investigating the outage have accelerated. The last meetings were held last Friday, Sunday and Monday.

In total, this body chaired by Aagesen and made up of ‘state professionals of recognised prestige’ was created on 30 April. It is made up of several ministries and has held 14 meetings since this historic Iberian zero, which has provoked cross accusations between the electricity companies (particularly Iberdrola) and the system operator, against the backdrop of the multi-million dollar compensation at stake.

On 4 June, the committee went so far as to write to the electricity companies to express its ‘concern’ about the slowness in sending certain information, which led aelec, which includes Iberdrola and Endesa, to state that it is ‘absolutely false’ that they were ‘hiding information’ about the blackout, although these two companies acknowledged that they had some requests for data pending to be answered.

The committee is made up of several ministries, in addition to Ecological Transition (Economy, Defence, Interior...) and organisations such as the National Cryptologic Centre and the Defence Staff. The Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) and the CNMC, which will also draw up its own report, will be ‘invited’. In addition to this document, as required by EU regulations, the European transmission operators' association ENTSO-e, of which REE is a member, will draw up its own report.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

-------------

The report was written by a committee of experts. Fifty, I think.

The committee studying the blackout is made up of representatives of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the
Demographic Challenge (MITECO), the Presidency of the Government, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of the
Interior. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Intelligence Centre, the General Staff and the
National Centre for the Protection of Critical Infrastructure are involved.

https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/prensa/ultimas-noticias/2025/abril/el-gobierno-crea-el-comite-para-el-analisis-de-la-crisis-de-elec.html
#:~:text=Adem%C3%A1s%20del%20MITECO%2C%20el%20Comit%C3%A9%20est%C3%A1%20integrado,medio%20del%20Centro%20Nacional%20de%20Protecci%C3
%B3n%20de [www.miteco.gob.es]

The blackout, which occurred on 28 April 2025, affected the Iberian Peninsula, including Spain, Portugal and Andorra, and
extended as far south as France. The power outage caused disruptions to essential services such as hospitals, airports and
telecommunications networks. The causes of the blackout are being investigated by this committee.

-------------

The Spain's government has written a decree with a long list of things and regulations related to all this. It is long and I only heard of it on the radio, did not take notes, but among many things they are promoting the installation of batteries on solar/wind sites.

Article in Spanish: <https://www.energias-renovables.com/panorama/estas-son-todas-las-claves-del-real-20250624>

Antonio Barrero F.

The Council of Ministers yesterday approved a Royal Decree-Law containing ‘urgent measures to reinforce the electricity system’. But not only. Because, apart from arriving by way of urgency (and hand in hand with the extraordinary blackout of 28A), the RDL presented this Tuesday by the Executive includes a whole battery of measures to accelerate the energy transition. So simple. Among them...? Well, measures to promote self-consumption (extending the radius from 2 to 5 kilometres), measures for the deployment of the heat pump (tax relief on IBI and ICIO), storage (speeding up procedures), energy communities (the RDL includes the figure of the collective self-consumption manager) and independent aggregators.

Making a virtue of necessity. Spain went to zero on 28 April and, two months later, on 24 June, the government is putting its foot down on the accelerator of the energy transition to avoid similar events in the future... but not only. This is the feeling that the RDL approved by the Council of Ministers has left for the moment (the small print of the Royal Decree-Law will have to be read slowly when it is published). In any case, that is the feeling: that the government has done with the stroke of a pen what it should have done much earlier. Or what it should have been doing over the last two years. For example? Extending the radius of self-consumption, something that everyone has been agreeing on for a long time. For example? Develop the figure of the independent aggregator, which has long been demanded by the vast majority of the sector's agents. For example? Regulating the figure of the self-consumption manager (we will have to read the RDL slowly).

Be that as it may, it seems that many measures that had long been in the drawer have now finally seen the light of day... at the stroke of a blackout. Because that has been the pretext. Last week, the government presented its report on the energy zero, a report in which it apportioned blame (probably with a small mouth) between the system operator, Red Eléctrica, and the electricity companies (Iberdrola, Endesa and company); and announced at the same time that it would present this week, as it has done, a RDL with a whole battery of measures to prevent (and avoid) future zeroes and, incidentally, to speed up the energy transition.

And that is indeed what the Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen, announced on Tuesday: a RDL containing, to begin with

(1) measures to control compliance with the obligations of the different agents (roughly so that what happened on 28 January, according to Red Eléctrica, does not happen again: the electricity companies did not comply with their obligation to control the voltage, despite the fact that they are obliged to do so, and despite the fact that, moreover, they are paid for it);

(2) measures for the inclusion of new tools to reinforce the system; and

(3) measures to boost electrification, storage and flexibility.

All these issues,‘ explains the Ministry, ’are the result of the work of the Committee for the analysis of the circumstances of the electricity crisis of 28 April.

Sara Aagesen, Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge: "the objective of strengthening the resilience of our electricity system takes on special relevance in the current context, a complex and geopolitically very, very complicated context. Promoting the energy transition, promoting the electrification of industrial demand, sustainable mobility, the entry of more innovative technologies and solutions, such as storage and flexibility, allows us to create a more robust, more solvent system, with more stable and predictable bills for citizens, the self-employed, SMEs and our industry. In short, more strategic autonomy in a complex, uncertain and volatile world".

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

-------------

<https://elperiodicodelaenergia.com/el-gobierno-aprueba-la-instalacion-de-compensadores-sincronos-y-refuerza-la-interconexion-con-francia/>

Energy policy

*The Government approves the installation of synchronous compensators and reinforces the interconnection with France*

The 65 actions are aimed at incorporating additional tools into the networks to facilitate voltage control, stability in the event of oscillations and, in general, to reinforce the electricity system
Redacción

Editorial staff

07/08/2025

The Council of Ministers, at the request of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco), has approved a list of specific actions to increase the resilience of the electricity grid, which will be incorporated as a new Specific Modification to the Development Plan for the Electricity Transmission Grid 2021-2026, the second, after the one implemented in 2024. The list includes 65 actions aimed at incorporating additional tools into the grids to facilitate voltage control, stability in the event of fluctuations and, in general, the reinforcement of the electricity system, both on the Spanish mainland and in the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands.

The actions include the installation of synchronous compensators for the first time on the mainland, as well as the incorporation of new units on the islands. These devices provide dynamic voltage control and, given their local nature, are distributed geographically to reinforce it in the different areas, complementing the equipment and solutions that the system already has for this function.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

... You can read the rest on the link if desired.

--
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-29 19:36 +0100
  Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-29 21:49 +0200
    Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-29 21:03 +0100
    Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-29 22:21 +0200
      Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-30 10:31 +0100
        Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-30 12:33 +0200
          Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-30 12:55 +0100
            Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-30 19:03 +0200
              Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-30 21:11 +0100
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-30 22:22 +0200
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-30 22:45 +0100
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-01 00:28 +0200
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-09-30 18:45 -0700
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-01 09:19 +0100
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-01 11:20 +0200
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-01 12:20 +0100
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-01 13:45 +0200
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-10-01 09:35 -0700
                Gnome 49 [Was: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout] "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-01 19:22 +0200
                Re: Gnome 49 John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-10-01 10:48 -0700
                Re: Gnome 49 Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-10-01 11:16 -0700
                Re: Gnome 49 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-01 18:47 +0000
                Re: Gnome 49 Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-10-01 15:38 -0700
                Re: Gnome 49 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-02 04:24 +0000
                Re: Gnome 49 Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-10-01 22:22 -0700
                Re: Gnome 49 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-02 07:20 +0000
                Re: Gnome 49 Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-02 11:17 +0100
                Re: Gnome 49 The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-02 12:04 +0100
                Re: Gnome 49 Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-02 11:13 +0100
                Re: Gnome 49 John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-10-02 07:46 -0700
                Re: Gnome 49 Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> - 2025-10-02 16:12 +0000
                Re: Gnome 49 John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-10-02 09:38 -0700
                Re: Gnome 49 Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-03 00:04 +0100
                Re: Gnome 49 Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> - 2025-10-04 09:45 +0300
                Re: Gnome 49 "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-04 20:27 +0200
                Re: Gnome 49 Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2025-10-04 15:28 +0000
                Re: Gnome 49 John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-10-06 08:41 -0700
                Re: Gnome 49 Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> - 2025-10-02 11:18 +0000
                Re: Gnome 49 The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-02 11:19 +0100
                Re: Gnome 49 Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-10-02 19:03 +0000
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-01 18:33 +0100
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-03 10:02 +0100
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-03 10:07 +0100
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-10-01 09:25 -0700
                Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-01 18:31 +0100
            Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-03 09:50 +0100
              Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-03 10:05 +0100
              Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-03 13:35 +0200
      Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-03 09:21 +0100
        Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-03 13:28 +0200
  Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-30 19:11 +0200
    Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-30 21:13 +0100
      Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-03 10:48 +0100
        Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-03 10:56 +0100
  Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-30 19:19 +0200
    Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-30 21:14 +0100
      Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-30 22:22 +0200
        Re: OT: The real story of the Iberian blackout The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-30 22:45 +0100
    Re: OT: report by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) [Was: The real story of the Iberian blackout] "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-03 13:23 +0200
    Re: OT: report by the The Institute for Technological Research (IIT) at Comillas Pontifical University [Was: The real story of the Iberian blackout] "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-03 13:23 +0200

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