Beatriz Corredor (Red Eléctrica): "I'm not going to resign. Not showing my face isn't my style."

MadridFollowing Monday's massive power outage across the Iberian Peninsula, the spotlight is on the Spanish electricity system operator, Red Eléctrica. However, its president, Beatriz Corredor, does not hesitate to defend the company's role before, during, and after the historic incident: "If I were aware that I had done something wrong, I would raise it. But Red Eléctrica has worked well and has been up to the task of responding," Corredor said in an interview on Cadena SER this Wednesday morning.

This Wednesday was the first day that Corredor has spoken publicly. She did so after the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, expressed disagreement with the conclusions that Red Eléctrica has reached so far on Tuesday. While the operator of the electrical system rules out causes such as cyberattack, Sánchez does notCorredor defended Red Eléctrica's work to restore electricity supply in the state. However, she maintains that it will still take time to determine the specific causes of the blackout: "We must analyze millions of data points." In any case, she eased the pressure on renewable energy, specifically photovoltaic energy, which is under scrutiny for its possible responsibility in the blackout. Corredor sought to disassociate the incident from the penetration of these energies into the Spanish electricity system: "They operate stably and have a system that allows them to work with a conventional [electricity] generation system, without any security issues." The president of the electricity operator reaffirmed that Spain has one of the "best" electricity systems in Europe.

Iberdrola denies responsibility

Meanwhile, Iberdrola's chairman, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, indicated this Wednesday that the country's leading electricity company is not responsible for the causes of the massive blackout. Iberdrola announced its first-quarter results (earning €2.004 billion), and during the presentation to analysts, the chairman pointed the finger directly at Red Eléctrica: "The [system] operator is the one who must clarify what happened." "The only thing I can say is that before, during, and after the blackout, our fleet was ready and at the system operator's disposal to begin working [generating electricity] when instructed," he stated.

The chairman of the electricity company took the opportunity to once again defend the role of nuclear power plants as a "solution" to stabilizing the electrical system: "They are efficient and safe and represent the least expensive solution to guarantee the stability of the electrical system."