By Pietro Lombardi
MADRID (Reuters) -Mismanagement of a large solar plant in southwestern Spain made the country’s power system more vulnerable on April 28, when a massive blackout hit the Iberian Peninsula, according to the chair of Redeia, owner of grid operator REE.
The outage paralyzed large areas of Spain and Portugal for hours and spurred several probes including those conducted by the government, the energy watchdog, and power and grid companies.
“We have physical evidence and, therefore, can demonstrate that the extraordinary oscillation that began at 12:03 came from the mismanagement and poor control of a photovoltaic plant of high capacity in the province of Badajoz,” Beatriz Corredor told a Senate hearing on Thursday, referring to a first oscillation recorded shortly before the blackout.
The plant “behaved improperly and made the system much more vulnerable as a result,” she said without disclosing the plant’s name, owner or its exact location.
“The same plant had had a similar failure, documented the previous year, and those responsible for that plant themselves said they had been conducting an experiment in terms of how to manage that plant.”
As on previous occasions, Corredor blamed the blackout on some coal, gas and nuclear plants for failing to help maintain an appropriate voltage.
Spanish utilities on their part blamed the blackout on the grid operator’s poor planning.
(Reporting by Pietro LombardiEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
