Views: 7
Recent major power collapse that plunged Spain, Portugal and partly France into disarray has aroused numerous suggestions as to its reasons and consequences for the EU-wide electricity system and policy. Although the authorities and experts are still seeking to determine the exact causes (and it’s still too complicated to reach the final conclusion), some possible scenarios have already occurred. EU Commissioner for energy noted that this incident was “the most severe for almost two decades in Europe”.
Background
Among the number of scenarios suggested by experts include are those of: a) nature-like factors, b) national electric grid structures, and c) external cyber attack. The crisis is regarded as a wake-up call for the EU-wide electric policy guidelines and technical issues connected to “massive collection” of electricity. The latter is still a huge problem to be resolved by modern science and technology, probably with the use of digital means.
Several EU states are in the ongoing process involving most ambitious, vital and urgent modern transformations in the national (and inter-connected) energy systems, the process unique in the European and world-wide electricity systems. For example, EU-27 states are deploying massive amounts of renewable energy into the existing grids (mainly from solar and wind sources); however, not always the necessary amount of investment into the grids’ modernisation doesn’t match the efforts needed to face challenges and ultimately creating a very reliable electricity system. Most experts are unanimous that the national energy infrastructure’s system has to be developed in line with the development of energy-generating facilities during last decades.
Although previously such widespread grid failures were extremely rear and unusual occasions, it is evident at present that the recent crisis bringing down power could be caused by a number of things: e.g. a physical fault in the grid, a coordinated cyber attack and/or a dramatic imbalance between demand and supply that brought the grid system to collapse. Theoretically, damage to the electricity systems and grids could stem from inconsistency in the inter-connectivity between different regional and national grids consequently leading to the unpredictable consequences. It seems that the present level of technology is not up to the modern challenges followed by the massive involvement of renewable energy sources.
Possible reasons and scenarios…
This article assembles some suggestions provided by the EuroNews.eu publications during last days (main reference to: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/europe-news):
1. Some grid operators initially blamed a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” that caused “anomalous oscillations” in high-voltage power lines in the Iberian Peninsula. Reports circulating after the crisis suggested that the break-out could have been the result of a rare phenomenon called “induced atmosphere vibration,” which caused “anomalous oscillations” in the high-voltage lines states in Iberian Peninsula and in Sothern part of France.
Besides, as e.g. the Portuguese energy company REN noted that “some oscillations caused synchronization failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European networks”; however, it is still unclear what these “failures” and “vibrations” could be and what effect they would have o the region’s power grid?
Solomon Brown, a professor of process and energy systems at the University of Sheffield in the UK, said that an “induced atmospheric vibration” could be considered the equivalent of “inducing a small shift in the local electromagnetic field”.
2. The electricity transmission grids are the backbone of ant country’s electricity system: the grids are connecting power generation stations to distribution points, large consumers’ networks and other national energy components. Hence, the national grid is designed to transmit the energy created by electricity generation plants among various “locations” in the most efficient and safely mode.
For example, the Spanish transmission grid has over 45,000 km of high-voltage line circuits, more than 700 substations, 600 bays and over 200 transformers. The Portuguese grid, although smaller, has 9,661 km of circuits, and roughly 77 per cent of its energy produced is from renewables like solar and wind. Power grids of various states are often synchronized or interconnected, which means that if “some mistakes” occurred in one national generator, it could immediately be felt in other connected grids. Thus, system operators controlling the power grid are obliged to maintain the balance between the volumes of power the grid supplies and how much is being consumed.
Reference to: https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/04/29/how-engineers-managed-to-get-the-power-back-on-after-spain-and-portugals-mass-outage?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign
In view of the massive use of renewable energy sources, the national grid systems in the world, according to the International Energy Agency, are facing a dramatic challenge: they must add or replace 80 million km of grids by 2040 to meet climate targets and support energy security.
The role of renewables (and/or alternative sources of energy) is becoming vital for the modernized energy grids: renewables are becoming an essential component to traditional energy sources (or even sometimes substitute them totally, like in some Scandinavian countries); electricity from these alternative sources is then difficult to “adjust” being fed into the grid. If the “balancing” between the traditional and alternative sources is not quite perfect and secure, the problem can occur: presently, Spain has about 54% of electricity comes from renewables, in Portugal -77%.
Experts mean that more interconnected system with more grids could be a definite solution in avoiding such incidents in the future; however, in the past, “failed” interconnectors have been the reasons for power outages: in 2005, a German power overload caused a similar blackout.
Presently, national grids and essential energy services are becoming not only increasingly interconnected and digitally controlled, the risk of a single event triggering widespread cascading effects grows significantly” noted specialists in cybersecurity and in critical infrastructure protection.
Source: https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/04/29/europes-wake-up-call-what-lessons-need-to-be-learned-from-spain-and-portugals-power-outage?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=next_newsletter&utm_medium=referral&insEmail=1&insNltCmpId=339&insNltSldt=10080&insPnName=euronewsfr&isIns=1&isInsNltCmp=1
3. The same argumentation goes for a cyber attack suggestions: i.e. a number of high voltage systems are inter-connected and share volume’s assets: it means, damaging one would lead to a whole system collapsed. However, so far, both the national cybersecurity centers and the leadership in these states acknowledged that there was no indication the outage was due to a cyber attack. However, insecurity in the inter-connectivity of the national grids and their systems would mean that any fault or cyber attack would have the same damaging result.
In the conclusion, the Commission notes that a special investigation team composed of transmission system operators from EU member states (though not connected and involved in the incident) with representatives from Spain, Portugal and France as observers will make a report. The team will have up to six months to deliver a fact-finding report about the blackout that will explain the causes of the incident followed by a series of recommendations.