One of the most discussed technical aspects of Maxi Blackout In Spain, Portugal and France was the role that renewable sources plants would have played in this affair and specifically those to solar photovoltaic. Spain is one of the countries that produces more electricity through renewable sources (also at80%) and the accident occurred at the peak moment of photovoltaic production, it would seem precisely because of a massive loss of production by photovoltaic systems.
A peculiarity of all the plants that exploit renewable sources is in fact that, unlike conventional plants, in situations of instability of the network they are unable to intervene effectively to stabilize frequency or quickly compensate the energy deficit. In technical jargon it is said that they have no electromechanical inertia. This limited response capacity makes the system more exposed to oscillations and risks of imbalance.
When the accident involved the photovoltaic systems, therefore, these disconnected from the network. If we go and watch the data provided by Red Eléctric de Españathe manager of the Spanish electricity grid, in fact we notice a vertical collapse of photovoltaic production, with beyond 10 GW lost Probably within a handful of seconds.
Basically, the Spanish electricity grid 30% of its production has been lacking abruptly: an imbalance too violent to be compensated by the regulation systems. At this point Network imbalance becomes on a national scale: The detachment of photovoltaic systems, even if localized, generates violent frequency oscillations that activate protections in other systems, with consequent cascade disconnections that thus generate an increasingly extensive blackout.
In short, according to the first reconstructions (to be verified), photovoltaic systems may have transformed a localized imbalance of the electricity grid into a collapse extended to the entire Iberian peninsula. If the same triggering accident – still unknown – had happened in the evening, that is, far from the production peak, The system would probably be able to compensate through traditional plants which instead have electromechanical inertia.
This though It does not mean that “it was the fault of renewables”. In fact, at the moment we do not know what the blackout triggered: the triggering cause could also have concerned conventional thermoelectric power plants. Furthermore, it is undeniable that the renewables are fundamental for the ecological transition. In short, renewables should not be demonized: like any technology they have pros and cons, and among them there is certainly the lack of inertia, but the important thing is to be aware of the problems that can emerge and find solutions to manage them at best and prevent such vast accidents from repeating.
