On April 28 at 12:33 pm, parts of Spain and parts of Portugal were immersed in the dark: trains were trapped, phone and internet coverage stuttered, and the ATM stopped working.
Electricity blackout in the Iberian peninsula is believed to be one of the worst in the history of Europe.
While most of the power was restored by the next morning, blackouts are under investigation.
Last week, Spain’s Energy Minister Sara Ez said that till now it was a sudden loss of power in a substation in Grenada, followed by failures in Badajoz and Seval, there was a loss of 2.2 gigawatts of electricity, but this accurate cause is unknown.
Waiting for the answer, some have indicated fingers on high dependence on Spain’s renovation and ruled the debate on plans to phase nuclear power by 2035.
Is renewal convicted?
Spain is one of those leaders in Europe’s green energy infection and is an ambitious goals for renewable to provide 81% of their electricity by 2030. Last year, he was responsible for the country’s 56% records and had made the solar ability Gru twice twice at the European rate.
Shortly before the blackout, renewal took about 70% of Spain’s power generation, mostly by solar.
It has been used by members of the opposition party and nuclear advocates to suggest that the renewable items were overlapping at the overlapping mistake – in which both the country’s grid operator Red Electric Day Espana and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez have disputed. The atom currently provides about 20% of the country’s electricity.
While the solar and air are dependent on the weather, atoms can provide a relative continuous baselode power. However, Sanchez has said that there is no evidence that more nuclear capacity of April 28 would have been prevented.
Using the event to speculate against solar is more politically motivated than factual-based, the head of solar energy at the Helmholtz Center for the Energy Research Center in Berlin said.
Schlatmann indicates the fact that the high percentage of renewal in the grid was nothing unique. “This has happened many times before.”
Earlier last month, Spain managed to cover 100% of electricity demand on a week’s day with renewal alone.
Shlatman said that countries like Germany have a higher percentage experience with electricity from renewal with one of the most stable power systems in the world.
How to apply grid stability?
Experts suggest that Spanish blackout highlights the issues of grid stability more than problems with renewable energy sources.
“It is primarily that the system has not yet adapted to massive changes towards the thesis renewable sources on the grid scale,” said that Chiutman said, many power grids still reflect the demands of a fossil fuel system.
The grid is often described as the most complex system designed by humans – incorporating the complex network of generators, transmission and distribution lines, which all need to be kept in balance to function.
Atoms, coal and gas power plants contain huge steel generators that provide large rotating mass – which is often referred to Inertia – It can maintain stability if there is ups and downs in the grid.
It is now possible to change their stable function in the way a system changes in the armpit while removing the thesis from our power grid, telling Robert Pietzkar, senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “You can do virtual inertia, such as with these inverters that have grid making abilities.”
Inverters with grid -making ability help to create a type of “synthetic inertia” and stabilize ups and downs in the power system.
Technology for creating synthetic inertia – including electrical storage and better control system – already available on a commercial scale, but has not yet been implemented on national or European scale, said that Shline said.
Other solutions that can provide stability are flywheels, which are the largest in the world manufactured in Ireland today. Flywheels use cylindrical rotors that accelerate a high speed, storing kinetic energy that can be used quickly when needed.
Better battery storage and increasing flexibility are important in the grid system, said Stephen Thomas, head of energy, transport and climate policy at the Wupportal Institute in Germany. “More connections for neighboring countries that can help keep the system in synchronization around 50 Hz.” Maintaining a stable 50 Hz frequency is necessary for the stability of Europe’s power grid.
He exposes Germany as an example of a country with good connections and high levels of stability to other countries.
Things discover as electric vehicles – who can store electricity and then feed it back to the grid if needed – so help provides flexibility, Thomas said.
For regions such as northern Europe, which may experience small air and sun duration, backup capacity, which can be discovered by sources, can be discovered as hydrogen turbines, it may be necessary, Pietzkar said.
In renewable investment is getting stronger, but more essential for grid
Electric vehicles, chips, AI and air conditioning are helping to promote rapid growth in demand for electricity.
Technical solutions for low carbon and stable grids are now available, Pietzkar said. “With the understanding of today’s systems, you can design stable systems that will be flexible based on renewal.”
While grid stability is holding the roll back from renewable items in Europe, he says that the Commission in the European Union carries a strong glyl for more interrelations.
According to the International Energy Agency, the amount of investment in grids globally should exceed 2030 to $ 600 billion (€ 532 billion). The annual investment in the grid has been almost the same since 2010, while the investment in renewable has almost doubled.
In view of Spain’s blackout, former president of the country’s grid operator Red Electric, Jordan Sevila told the Spanish media that it was clear that the country’s grid needed money to adapt to the reality of the new generation of the new generation.
Edited by: Sara Stephen
