Granada, Badajoz, and Seville: The power outage maze is beginning to unravel.

MadridThe maze of the April 28th power outage appears to be beginning to unravel. On the one hand, the beginning of the incident is now defined in the provinces of Granada, Badajoz, and Seville—a few days ago, the Spanish government already focused on the southwest of the country. On the other hand, it has been ruled out that the Spanish electricity system operator, Red Eléctrica, suffered a cyberattack. Both conclusions were anticipated this Wednesday by the Third Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, during her appearance in the Congress of Deputies to account for the electrical incident that For hours it left the entire Iberian Peninsula without supplies.

"We have already identified where the first generation losses occurred. We already know that they began in Granada, Badajoz, and Seville," Aagesen explained. The minister recalled that after the two oscillations detected half an hour before the blackout in the Spanish system, but also in other parts of Europe, the power generation losses reached the State. The chronology is as follows: at 12:32:57 a loss of generation was detected at a substation in Granada; at 12:33:16 the same occurred at a substation in Badajoz and, finally, a third loss of power generation at 12:33:17 at a substation in Seville. The three episodes resulted in the disconnection of 2.2 GW, Aagesen explained.

"After [these losses] the cascade generation disconnection phase begins due to overvoltage, [...] the loss of synchronization between the peninsular system and the continental system [...] and later the peninsular system is isolated," Aagesen recalled. The loss of generation and continuous voltage and the safety mechanisms, despite being activated, are not capable of preventing the massive blackout or zero electricity. From then on, questions such as what caused the loss of power, or why the firewalls or security systems didn't work, remain unanswered. "We are continuing to work to clarify the causes," said the minister, who insisted to the deputies that they will get to the bottom of the incident, while asking for patience given the millions of data points that must be analyzed: "If it weren't complicated [to understand what happened], they wouldn't give us three months to investigate." Aagesen placed special emphasis on the fluctuations prior to the incident detected in Europe.

In fact, the progress explained this Wednesday by the minister comes from the Spanish government's analysis committee, created on April 30, which has already met six times. This committee must deliver a report within three months, unlike the independent group of European experts, which has a six-month window to present a preliminary study with recommendations (the final report will not be made public until September 2026).

A cyberattack on Red Eléctrica is ruled out.

Aagesen also anticipated that the investigation launched has already ruled out some hypotheses: "We clearly know that it was not a problem of coverage, reserves, or the size of the [electrical transmission and distribution] networks," she explained. Likewise, for the first time, the possibility of a cyberattack against the Spanish electricity system operator, Red Eléctrica, was ruled out. "No evidence [of a cyberattack] has been found. This is good news," the minister stated. Until now, the Spanish government had kept this possibility open, unlike Red Eléctrica itself, which ruled it out the day after the power outage. Sources from the Ministry of Ecological Transition clarify that the possibility of a cyberattack has only been ruled out against the operator, but not against other actors.

The political parties in Congress have taken advantage of the minister's appearance to refocus on the debates that the power outage has reignited. Among them are the closure of nuclear power plants in the Spanish state and the responsibility of renewable energy sources for the blackout. In fact, before the deputies' interventions, Aagesen had already called for going "much further than blaming one generation source or another." The PP and Vox are championing the need to extend the useful life of nuclear power plants, while the left-wing bloc is demanding that the Spanish government "not take a step back" from the current schedule.

In turn, parties such as ERC and Junts have criticized the Spanish government for a "news blackout" regarding the incident: they criticize Pedro Sánchez's administration for the limited progress in the conclusions regarding the blackout. Likewise, left-wing parties have once again questioned the current structure of Red Eléctrica: both the fact that it is a private company (it only has a 20% state stake) and the functions it performs (They raise the question of whether it is necessary to separate the management of the system from the function as a carrier).

Prior notices from Red Eléctrica and Competition

The progress of the investigation into the April 28th electrical incident coincides with information released this Wednesday indicating that Red Eléctrica and the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) warned two years ago that "tensions" in the electrical grid could cause a power outage. Specifically, a Competition working document has been under scrutiny. published on November 13, 2023 in Official State Gazette (BOE) which is part of its usual task in regards to the review of the regulatory framework of the electrical system.

Consulted by the ARA after I have advanced it The CountryThe Competition document includes Red Eléctrica's warnings about a "general increase in the voltage level on the transmission grid, which, at certain times, exceeds the maximum permissible values." "These high voltages on the grid could cause the untimely disconnection of facilities connected to the grid," the document warned. Given this scenario, the agency proposes launching a pilot project to establish new rules related to voltage control.