Red Eléctrica asks for “tranquility” and denies “risk of blackout” after asking the CNMC for urgent measures to avoid surges

Three days after communicating changes in the operation of the network that will reduce the injection of electricity from renewable sources and requesting the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) to “urgently” authorize it to modify several of its regulations relating to the control of the voltage of the electrical network, Red Eléctrica has launched this Thursday a “message of tranquility” and has denied that there is “neither imminent nor widespread risk” of a new blackout like the one on April 28.

“We have not talked about the risk of a blackout, either imminent or widespread,” said the system operator after the latest news about its decisions and requests to modify the way the network operateswhich are added to the reinforced operation since April 29, which involves resorting to a greater extent to hydroelectric, nuclear and combined cycles, electricity generation plants capable of controlling the voltage that renewables are not yet allowed to do. Added to this is the instruction that came into force this Wednesday for renewable plants to delay the reaction time to inject electricity into the grid from two to 15 minutes and the request to the CNMC to allow it to modify other procedures also aimed at guaranteeing that the voltage remains within the normal range and avoiding surges such as those that ended in electrical zero on April 28.

“The system operator highlights in his writing the observance in the last two weeks of sudden voltage variations in the Spanish peninsular electrical systemsuch that they may have an impact on the security of supply if the proposed changes are not implemented”, explains the CNMC itself in the opening of an urgent consultation period -of five days- to give approval to the measures requested by Red Eléctrica.

However, the operator denied this Thursday that the “voltage variations” that it has observed “recently” and that “should be avoided”, pose “a supply risk”, because These variations “have been within admissible limits”. It should be remembered that, in its factual report on the blackout, the association of European operators (ENTSO-e) found that the normal range of network voltage in Spain is wider than in other EU countries and that after its own analysis of what happened on April 28, the Ministry of Ecological Transition recognized that it was necessary to take measures to determine at what intensity voltage variations had to be avoided, even when they occurred within normal limits.

“From the system operator we have acted as always, proposing the measures that we consider necessary to reinforce the robustness of the electrical system“, says Red Eléctrica in its message. “The objective is to reduce the dynamics that have begun to appear due to the evolution that the system is experiencing,” it added.