Blackout in Spain and Portugal “First of the genre”, the report finds

An increase in power that has caused a generalized power failure in Spain and Portugal was the “most serious” in Europe in the past 20 years, and the first of its kind, has revealed a report.

Damian Cortinas, president of the association of Electricity Grid Operators Ento-e, said that the incident was the first failure known to be caused by an overvoltage, which occurs when there is too much electrical voltage in a network.

“This is a new territory,” said Cortinas, adding that the role of ent-e was “not to blame any part” on the cause.

April’s breakdown caused a significant disruption for almost a day when it plunged the areas in the darkness, the reduction of internet and telephone connections and the stop of transport links.

The power failure affected large parts of Spain and Portugal and briefly affected the South West of France.

The report, published on Friday, focused on the condition of the power systems on the day of the breakdown and the sequence of events that led there.

A series of “cascade overvoltages”-an increase in the power supply voltage above the established standard-was behind the failure, he concluded.

The overvoltage can be caused by overvoltages in networks due to excess or lightning strikes, or when the protective equipment is insufficient.

According to the report, automatic defense plans have been activated but could not prevent the power system stopping.

It follows on several surveys and distinct reports from the Spanish government, as well as power and network companies. The national energy guard dog and Spanish legislators also conduct separate surveys.

The Spanish government believes that the Entry report supports its own conclusions.

Sara Aages, Minister of Ecological Transition, said that she was “completely online” with the results of an investigation she ordered which concluded in June that the national supplier of the Red Eléctrica network and private electricity companies were at fault.

Red Eléctricrica and private companies insisted so that they did not blame. Redeia, owner of Red Eléctrica, blamed the failure of the carbon, gas and nuclear energy outfit to help maintain the appropriate tension.

The Spanish public services said it was caused by poor planning of grid operators.

The ENTO-E report also indicated that certain important data was missing and that “complete and high quality data has proven to be very difficult for this survey”.

A final report, which will be published in the first quarter of next year, will investigate the deep causes of overvoltage and the actions used to control the tension in the system.

The breakdown sparked a broader debate which has spread in the political arena on the energy model of Spain.

The opposition suggested that a stronger dependence on renewable energies, promoted by the left government of Pedro Sánchez, could have been a factor to cause the failure and that the country’s decrease in nuclear energy meant that a reliable backup was not available.

The government has rounded these theories in a round way and the new report has taken care to avoid taking sides with regard to the causes of unprecedented blackout.

The loss of power forced the Madrid Open tennis organizers to stop a game halfway through the game.

The Spanish nuclear power plants automatically stopped when the power failure hit, and the Spanish oil company Moeve said it had interrupted its operations in its oil refineries.

Buildings were plunged into darkness, while mobile phones and traffic lights stopped working. The queues served around the corners of the street and card payments failed, forcing people to queue for money and collapsing on buses because other transport systems did not work.

Emergency workers were called to 286 buildings to release people trapped inside the elevators of the Madrid region and hospitals have implemented emergency plans, which stopped routine procedures.