In the European Union do not want the mass blackout in Spain and Portugal, and There are tools to make a diagnosis and avoid new confusion scenes. After chaos the process begins to understand the causes and that the situation does not occur in other European countries. The question after all is: What role does the European Union have to prevent something like this from spreading? While in Spain the Government does not rule out any hypothesis, the possibility of a cyber attack loses strength but the blackout has shown vulnerabilities in a system that, in reality, is European.
On the one hand, the European commission recognizes that more and better interconnections are needed. And it is that Spain is an energy island because, despite being geographically connected to the rest of Europe, Its energy system is relatively isolated from other European countries. This expression refers to the limited capacity of electrical interconnection with the rest of the continent, especially with France, which prevents fluid integration into the European energy market.
Although in recent years efforts have been made to increase interconnection capacity, especially with France and Portugal, advances have been slow due to technical, geographical and political factors. Overcoming this “Energy Island” condition is key for Spain to benefit “Fully from the European energy market, it improves its energy safety and progress towards a more efficient decarbonization“, As explained from Brussels. In that scenario, in addition, there is another problem, and that is that the degree of interconnection of the Iberian electrical system with the rest of Europe is below the objectives established by community regulations: the European Commission asks to reach 10%, and Spain continues in 6.5%, with France as the only firm link … but insufficient. The ideal scenario, with everything, is 15%.
An outstanding example is the electrical interconnection between Spain and France through the Pyrenees, known as the Baixas – Santa Llogaia interconnection. This project, opened in 2015, It consists of a high voltage line in direct current of about 64.5 km that connects the Spanish town of Santa Llogaia (Girona) with Baixas (France). Its capacity is 2,000 megawatts (MW), which doubled the electricity exchange capacity between the two countries at that time. Despite its importance, this route is not yet enough to achieve the minimum interconnection objective with respect to the total installed capacity, which is recommended by the European Union for optimal market operation. Therefore, new projects are being planned, such as underwater interconnection through the Vizcaya Gulf, which could be operational in the coming years and further increase the integration of Spain into the European energy network.
“A union that is more integrated, That is more interconnected, it is also an element of strengthening our security in terms of supply Of electricity, “said the spokesmen of the Community Executive when asked about the current context, and, and made, at the end of the year, Brussels are expected to present a new plan to improve that scenario; while Spain continues in a way isolated … although with underway projects.
That is the general panorama, but in the specific Spanish case, the European regulations require a deeper technical investigation if the incident is classified as serious, using a scale of 0 to 3. The blackout of Spain has not yet been classified, but an previous less severe that affected Croatia, Romania or Albania, was classified as level 3, which suggests that this will probably also be (the European commission will still confirm it, but in a certain way yes anticipate it). If the diagnosis is so ‘extreme’ it is established An independent technical panel formed by experts, led by a network operator (TSOS) of a country not affectedwith the participation of TSO of the countries involved and regulatory authorities.
This panel will also serve to investigate the causes of chaos that occurred in the Peninsula during the day of Monday. The European Commission is not part of the panel, But you can issue recommendations and modify regulations After receiving the final report, which includes both causes and improvement proposals. Portugal, meanwhile, will ask for an independent audit to the community executive.
After a blackout of this type, the recovery phase is entered. This phase is regulated by European regulations, such as system operation guides and emergency network code and restoration. According to European legislation, system operators must have a defense plan and a restoration plan. These plans establish specific protocols to recover the electrical system after a blackout. In addition, other tsos They must support an affected country if an emergency is declared, as happened in this caseproviding energy assistance through interconnections.
The restoration process is done gradually. In the Spanish case, interconnections with France and Morocco were usedas well as hydroelectric plants, due to its flexibility. It is important to restart the system with generation that can gradually increase its production to maintain balance with consumption. Subsequently, gas plants and other larger sources are integrated. Thus, community sources do not point to the “excess” of the weight of renewables in the energy mix as one of the possible causes, but it is not something that is discarded at all.
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