Late April’s massive outage in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France has been blamed on many things. Officials are trying valiantly to spin the event as NOT being related to renewable energy. But overreliance on wind and solar energy certainly played a part in the collapse of the grid across entire nations.
A few days earlier, Spain’s grid operator Red Eléctrica boasted about achieving its first ever day of powering the entire grid with renewables. Wind dominated at 256 GWh, followed by solar with 151 GWh, and hydroelectric at 129 GWh. But the messaging swiftly changed from elation to damage control once an almost Iberian Peninsula-wide outage blacked out the subway and railway network, cut off phone service, shut down traffic lights and ATMs, and plunged cities into chaos for almost 24 hours. Madrid, Lisbon, and other major metros largely went to bed in total darkness.
A basic internet search turns up plenty of stories insisting that the underlying cause has not been determined, that it is complex, and that renewables were not responsible. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez blamed the outage on a strong oscillation but insisted that the full reason for the outage was not yet determined. What is suspicious about this coverage is that they say, on the one hand, that it is too early to tell the cause and, on the other hand, are emphatic that renewables did not precipitate the outage. A deeper dive unearths plenty of discussion about lack of inertia on the Spanish grid, sudden frequency disturbances, and a relatively fragile infrastructure.
Those quick to utterly condemn wind and solar should remember the Texas blackout a couple of years ago. Yes, renewables contributed to the outage, but the natural gas infrastructure was also to blame. The Lone Star state was so unused to low temperatures that they hadn’t bothered to proof up the gas pumping and pipeline network to function in freezing conditions.
Similarly in Iberia, there may well be multiple causes. But there is no doubt that overreliance on wind and solar played their part. Spain and Portugal are embarking on a vast experiment to determine how much wind and solar can stably exist on a grid. No one really knows, but current technology cannot cope with 100%, 75%, and perhaps not even 50% renewables. Yes, such numbers can be reached briefly or perhaps for a day. But anyone expecting a high percentage of renewables as base load is asking for trouble.
Twenty years ago, coal and nuclear energy produced almost all Spanish electricity. Natural gas generation peaked in 2009 as coal declined. Since then, wind and solar have steadily displaced natural gas. Iberdrola still owns around 5 GW of gas-fired capacity in Spain, though many of these facilities are underutilized. The plan is to close them all by 2030 as part of Spain’s determination to reach a net-zero target. Spain also plans to shut down all nuclear reactors by 2035, with two scheduled to be decommissioned in 2027.
Prior to the nationwide outage, the outlook for the Spanish grid looked bleak (unless you are an environmental advocate). No coal or natural gas generation operating on the grid by 2030 and almost no rotating assets in Spain by 2035 once the massive steam turbines inside its nuclear plants are decommissioned (a few hydro turbines would remain). How the grid operator hoped to operate a stable grid under these circumstances is difficult to comprehend.
Hopefully, the events of late April will give rise to some common sense. By all means, have plenty of renewables on the grid. Support them with modern natural gas, nuclear and hydroelectric generation that provides stability, reliability, and the ability to power the entire country in the event of low output from wind and solar.
