Tom Ewart Smith
SPANISH authorities have traced the origin of the Iberian power outage to a substation in the region of Andalucia.
Speaking on Wednesday, Energy Minister Sara Aagesen confirmed that an abrupt loss of power at a facility in Granada was the first of three failures that sparked disruptions across the grid.
Seconds later, related incidents were recorded in Badajoz and Sevilla, culminating in the loss of 2.2 gigawatts of electricity.
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It marks the first time officials have publicly identified the potential geographic source of the outage.
However, the minister cautioned that reaching a definitive conclusion would not be straightforward.
“We are analysing millions of pieces of data. We also continue to make progress in identifying where these generation losses occurred and we already know that they started in Granada, Badajoz and Sevilla,” Aagesen said.
Aagesen noted that early probes have already ruled out several possible causes, including cyberattacks on the grid operator REE, imbalances between supply and demand, and insufficient capacity.
“There was no alert, no warning,” she added, pushing away claims from opposition politicians that warnings from experts may have been ignored.
The minister also revealed that excessive voltage in the days preceding the event is being looked at as a possible trigger, after reports of volatility from grid operators.
Aagesen defended the government’s commitment to renewable energy after some critics suggested that the low proportion of nuclear and fossil fuels in the system may have contributed to the blackout.
“A mix with more renewables reduces external risks. It enables us to anticipate, adapt to, and respond quickly to any eventuality,” she said.
She also pointed out that the use of renewables in the system has remained consistent before, during, and after the blackout.
