Massive power outages on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, Portugal and southern France

[ingolftopf]

The cause is still unknown.

"Europe live with Jakub Krupa
Spain and Portugal power outage live: warnings of six to ten hours to restore supplies across Spain"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/apr/28/ukraine-russia-zelenskyy-putin-trump-crimea-germany-europe-news-live-updates?page=with%3Ablock-680f6cf78f08259e0d4fd1cf&filterKeyEvents=false#liveblog-navigation

[DoctorG]

@ingolftopf Sabotage by russian helpers or right-wing/left-wing terrorists or infrastructure which is not fail-safe.

[LonM]

Thankfully this appears to not be malicious, just an inability to "suppress grid oscillations".

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/massive-power-outage-in-spain-portugal-leaves-millions-in-dark/

[DoctorG]

@LonM said in Massive power outages on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, Portugal and southern France:

just an inability to "suppress grid oscillations".

OMG. Bad grid management. They will never reach green energy with windturbines and photo-voltaics.

[LonM]

@DoctorG I think this is a good reason to invest or develop more local sub-grids, where communities own their own solar panels or wind generators, that way even if there are wider outages, individuals and local business would be less affected.

[Pathduck]

At first I thought it finally was the Great Solar Storm they've been warning us about for years

But such a storm wouldn't only hit Spain and Portugal, and it would most likely hit us poor souls in the north the worst because of the magnetic field.

Our TV channel NRK had a documentary about it recently: What could happen if it hit in the middle of winter and electricity gone for days or weeks, really scary stuff. We are definitely not prepared for that - at least I'm not...

Really strange that a single fault could knock out everything on such a massive scale though, some heads will roll for sure...

Where I live they've been talking about installing those stupid app-controlled door locks instead of good old keys, I hope this makes them think again. Imagine being outside in -15C and you can't even get in the bloody door because there's no signal.

[DoctorG]

@Pathduck AI will save us from losing our keys. Ask little Elon and Sam, those garage IT kids know what works, Really! Trust them.

[alexzhu]

@LonM Nuclear is another clean solution that complements solar/wind by providing a persistent source of power

[Pesala]

@DoctorG said in Massive power outages on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, Portugal and southern France:

They will never reach green energy with windturbines and photo-voltaics

Sure they will—they just need to add more megapacks to match the amount of Solar and Wind.

From what we know so far, it looks to me like Spain added too much solar and wind , but not enough batteries to stabilize the grid.

Like Germany shut down Nuclear too soon in the rush to gain independence from Russian Gas.

@alexzhu said in Massive power outages on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, Portugal and southern France:

Nuclear is another clean solution that complements solar/wind by providing a persistent source of power

Maybe a necessary evil to keep at least some nuclear for base-load backup, unless a country has an abundance of hydro or geothermal.

[LonM]

@alexzhu One of the issues with power stations (nuclear or any other type) is they take much longer to perform a "black start". While they can help with baseload energy, in situations like this, i.e. to recover from a situation where there is no power on the grid, they might be more of a hindrance than a help.

[Ryszard]

Spain and Portugal first in the World

have achieved full climate neutrality