Spain’s private energy giants have been dragged into the fallout from Monday’s vast Iberian blackout, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez demanding their full cooperation to find out what went wrong.
Red Eléctrica, the country’s national grid operator, says it has “more or less tracked down” the cause – but it’s still combing through vast amounts of data.
“We know the cause and we have it more or less tracked down,” said Beatriz Corredor, president of Red Eléctrica. “The thing is there are millions of pieces of information because signals are sent every millisecond.”
The blackout, which hit Spain and Portugal at 12.33pm on Monday, saw 15 gigawatts – around 60% of energy in use – vanish from the grid in just five seconds.
The outage lasted into the night and left passengers trapped in trains and lifts.
At least five deaths in Spain are thought to be linked to the incident.
Although a cyber-attack has been ruled out by operators, Spain’s top criminal court has launched a probe into possible “computer sabotage” against critical infrastructure.
Sánchez, who says he first learned of Red Eléctrica’s cyber findings via the media, has created a commission to investigate and summoned energy firms including Iberdrola, Endesa, EDP, Acciona Energía and Naturgy to an emergency meeting.
I have thanked them for their work to rapidly restore the supply, and I have also asked them to work with the government and independent organisations to identify the causes of the incident.
“We need to undertake the necessary improvements when it comes to guaranteeing the supply and the future competitiveness of our system.”
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez
Responsibility and renewables?
But critics say Sánchez is dodging responsibility. The conservative People’s Party accused him of waging “an information blackout” and called on him to appear before congress.
Opposition voices also slammed the government’s energy policy, arguing that its rush to prioritise renewables over nuclear power has left the system vulnerable.
They claim Sánchez is now pinning the blame on private providers to deflect attention from his own decisions.
Portugal’s Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has called for an independent EU audit into the causes.
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