Red Eléctrica denounces that the electricity companies have not provided all the information about the blackout.

MadridOne day after the Spanish government committee's report on the massive power blackout was made public, the system operator, Red Eléctrica, presented its conclusions. The shadow of responsibility, or at least part of it, for what happened on April 28th still hangs over it. (Power lines, transformers, stations, etc.) It also published a report detailing what happened that caused the Iberian Peninsula to be without power for so many hours. However, the operator has made it clear that the investigation was conducted without all the information and points the finger directly at the major power companies. "All the information received from third parties was of the desired quality and was not sufficiently complete," said Red Eléctrica president Beatriz Corredor at a press conference on Wednesday.

In this way, Corredor has launched a first barb at the private sector. The operator's president explained that when data has been received from other system agents (generators, but also private electricity distributors, including the main electricity companies), they have "not always" provided it. In other words, the information has reached them "partially." In contrast, Red Eléctrica, which asserts that its report also preserves the confidentiality demanded by some stakeholders, has maintained that its data is "highly reliable." "The accuracy of [Red Eléctrica's] information is within twenty milliseconds. We have examined the extent of the operator's observability," Corredor argued.

The signaling to private companies, however, does not end there. Unlike the Spanish government, which on Tuesday apportioned blame, Red Eléctrica is putting the spotlight on the power companies: "If they had guaranteed compliance with all their voltage control regulations, the [massive] power outage would not have occurred, based on all the data we have, if all the plants had been connected on Wednesday. In fact, the director of operations, Concha Sánchez, even described some of the energy companies' actions as "dangerous" and "unjustified."

What happened?

Red Eléctrica's main conclusion is that a series of "cumulative" circumstances occurred that exceeded the system's safety criteria and resulted in a "system overvoltage." The total blackout included forced oscillations resulting from a "possible internal anomaly in a generating plant" and three generation loss events due to incorrect disconnections. The plant is being discussed for confidentiality reasons.

It has also pointed to a lack of voltage regulation and unjustified disconnections, in line with the Spanish government, of some plants that provide stability to the system. Aelec, the electricity employers' association (Iberdrola, Endesa, and EDP), maintained that all its plants were within the normal ranges established by the procedures

The director of operations has denied that on the day of the power blackout, there was not enough conventional generation (thermal power plants) scheduled to help control the dynamic voltage of the electrical system, contrary to what is indicated in the report of the Spanish government's committee of experts. Sánchez reiterated that the scheduling was sufficient.

She also defended the protocols implemented by Red Eléctrica to try to mitigate the fluctuations detected before the total blackout, which, in the eyes of the Spanish government, had the side effect of adding voltage to the system. Red Eléctrica has acknowledged that the measures increased voltage, but always within normal ranges, so they "categorically" rule out that this is one of the causes of the so-called zero energy.

Finally, Red Eléctrica has also denied that it should be responsible for the compensation. Corredor took the opportunity to defend the "impeccable" character of the system operator and all the workers at Red Eléctrica, in which the State holds a 20 percent stake through SEPI, and the "tireless" work they have done since the April 28 blackout.