Blackout: Let's turn on the light

What no one could have foreseen, or at least no one not closely linked to the energy sector, is that an entire country, or rather, more than one (Portugal was also affected), would be left in the dark for hours. We can all recall the effects: trains stopped in the middle of nowhere, the inability to talk on the phone or search for anything online, traffic lights out of order, constant traffic jams, as well as shops and businesses that had to shut down their operations on the first working day of the week.

The truth is that what many considered highly improbable actually happened, and therefore requires many explanations. Transistor radios and the analog world were rediscovered.

But we also need to review the role played by distributors, the market segment without competition and with territorial distribution. These are the companies that, from generation points, carry electricity to consumption points or provide supply to the marketing companies, which are subject to the free market. The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, did not want to exempt them from responsibility.

The truth is that the electricity system has changed a lot in recent years. Especially with regard to generation, which counts renewable energies (water, wind, and solar) as its main contributors, which represents a substantial change in the model. From large generation centers and centralized generation, we are moving towards a distributed one, which, therefore, requires a high-voltage grid (the REE) and distribution network that adapts to these needs.

The Spanish government should not fall into the temptation of easy populism by launching accusations without evidence against the electricity companies, but if there is responsibility, it will have to go all the way. And the companies most interested in extending the life of nuclear power plants (essentially Endesa and Iberdrola, since Naturgy inherited its stakes from the former Unión Fenosa and is more interested in gas as a backup energy through combined cycles when renewables fail), whose need is fundamental in some territories such as Catalonia, are against renewable energies.

There are experts who are not as drastic as the companies with atomic interests and who emphasize that adapting the grid to the new energy production model requires investments that the Spanish government should promote and encourage, and that the sector should implement, since Europe is committed to decarbonization and the transition. And the need to reduce the characteristic of the Iberian Peninsula as an energy island should also be taken into account. Currently, it only has 3% of its exchange capacity with the rest of Europe via France, and Brussels believes it should be at least 10%.