What Caused the Recent Power Outage in Spain, Portugal, and Southern France?

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SUMMARY

The recent power outage affecting Spain, Portugal, and southern France has been attributed to multiple potential factors, including high temperatures, humidity, and mechanical inertia loss due to the replacement of traditional rotating generators with inverters from renewable sources. While a cyber attack has been ruled out, the exact cause remains under investigation. The discussion highlights the importance of mechanical inertia in stabilizing power grids and raises questions about the reliability of modern energy systems, particularly in the context of increasing renewable energy integration.

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  • #61
when it happened i was sent some frequency captures from a friend and the frequency went far below any tolerances for dynamic stability of synchronous machines. I'm having trouble locating the picture now but I'll keep trying.

i have not kept with the latest, but I have heard more over time and it seems there were a couple generation loss events. first from tripping a transmission tie line and second from some IBR. the combination of generation loss into a system weakly coupled to main-land Europe created slow inter-area frequency oscillations. These are rarely seen in modern times because systems are usually strong and highly meshed/interconnected. but, when frequency begins to deviate, it traverses entire interconnections very quickly. it's fortunate the Iberian peninsula was the only thing to blackout and this should be seen a victory. It could have easily been far, far worse.

my personal opinion is, not knowing the official statement, that there's a difference in managing IBR generation and modeling generation portfolio costs with IBR and spain learned that difference. mismanagement of IBR (either in real-time or in planning or in commissioning stages (perhaps all three)) was ultimately to blame.
 
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  • #62
I think the view is that small events occurred and there was insufficient stored energy in the system to cope with it, so more rotating machinery (or electronic equivalent ) will be required.
 

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