The nationwide blackout of Spain’s electricity network highlights the vulnerability of grids on peninsulas and islands such as the UK, an energy expert has said.
Yesterday, a major incident saw millions of households and businesses across Spain, Portgual and southern France lose power in what was the largest power cut in Europe’s recent history.
While power has now been restored to more than 99% of affected areas, the cause of the blackout has not yet been identified. Various explanations have been offered, including cyber attacks on the grid and atmospheric phenomena across Spain.
Portuguese grid operator REN said “extreme variations” in Spain’s temperature caused the power failure, though Spanish transmission system operator Red Eléctrica has so far given no reason for the outage.
According to Jean-Paul Harreman, an analytics director at energy consultancy Montel, the blackout was “not particularly surprising” as “countries that are on the edge of, and more isolated from the synchronous...