Voltage control failures in Spain and Portugal led to a major power grid collapse nearly a year ago according to a detailed final report released this week.
The incident on October 29, 2023 disrupted electricity supply across both countries affecting millions of customers. Investigators found that insufficient voltage regulation during high demand periods triggered cascading failures in the transmission network.
Spain's grid operator Red Eléctrica de España and Portugal's REN confirmed the findings. The report states that automatic protection systems failed to respond correctly when voltage levels dropped below safe thresholds. This allowed the instability to spread rapidly through interconnected lines.
Regulators are now demanding immediate upgrades to monitoring and control systems. The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity has been asked to review similar vulnerabilities in other countries. Spain's energy ministry stated that implementing these changes will take at least 18 months.
The blackout lasted up to three hours in some areas. While no injuries were reported the economic impact ran into hundreds of millions of euros. The incident has prompted calls for stricter enforcement of grid reliability standards across the continent.
Source: tu.no