An electrical crisis that the emergency plan of the government ranking as “disastrous” | Spain
The National Security Council declared an unprecedented “electricity” after the blackout Generalized that from 12.32 hours began to hit Spain and Portugal, according to President Pedro Sánchez in an apparition without questions to La Moncloa. According to the EU directive 2019/41, an electricity crisis is “a present or imminent situation in which there is a significant scarcity of electricity, determined by the Member States and described in their risk plans”.
The declaration of this type of crisis It builds the country interested in sending – as the government actually realized – an “early notice” to the European Commission and to inform it, and the EU member countries of the South – western region of the possible causes of the deterioration of the offer, the measures adopted to mitigate it and the possibility of needing help from other European states.
The so called Preparation plan against electrical crises in Spain, It contains an electric crisis scale, which can vary from insignificant, the lowest, most disastrous, the most acute. The crisis is classified in the minimum threshold when the AES indicator (energy not supplied) is less than 0.002% of Spain’s annual demand in MWH (Megawatt now); And in the maximum, when the ENS are equal to or greater than 0.25%. In turn, the crisis will be less serious if this situation lasts less than three hours and very serious if 168 hours (a week) or more. The interested population or the number of vulnerable families without electricity supply are also taken into consideration. Although it is still early to classify it, this blackout is the most serious that Spain has ever suffered.
Once the crisis of electricity has been declared, the Ministry for the ecological transition and the demographic challenge – which directs the third vice -president Sara Aagesen – as a competent authority to manage the crisis, can collect information from energy companies, regional governments or armed forces, among many other entities.
Of the 31 scenarios of crisis planned by the EU, the plan selects 10 for Spain and discard the others for having considered them less likely. These scenarios are enclosed in nine categories depending on their cause: IT attacks, physical attacks, extreme weather phenomena, natural catastrophes, fuel deficiencies, human factor, market errors, technical failures and others.
Finally, the 10 that the plan considers most likely to Spain, in this order: Pandemic; extreme storm; computer attack against control systems; IT attack against critical teams used for control, protection and telecommunications activities; physical attack on critical infrastructures; physical attack on the control center; local technical failure (fire or explosion in a critical activity); sabotage by internal staff; Forestry fire; and the volcanic eruption (the latter was included after the eruption of the old summit on the island of La Palma in 2021).
None of these scenarios explains for its only sudden loss of 15 gigawatt of power, equivalent to 60% of the Spanish electricity demand at that moment, which caused a strong cut of the offer in the Iberian peninsula, as explained last night last night in a second appearance
The cause of the great blackout is not yet known, but those that are most likely considered would be a technical problem or a computer attack. The first is provided only by the Spanish plan in case of fire or explosion in an active criticism of the system, in which case it is recommended, as a palliative measure to minimize damage, “the application of technical restrictions in real time to manage frequency deviations outside the established limits”. If the cause of mass failure was a computer attack, of which no indications have been found so far, once the crisis has been activated, the adoption of a series of measures, which come “from the revision of the privileges of access to the transfer of the active functioning of the system to the secondary or dismissed system or operational centers, which will have an independent work team”.
Within the Ministry for the ecological transition, which is exercised as coordinator of the crises, the responsible authority is the general direction of energy policy and mines, which will be in contact with the European Commission, the authorities of the Member States and the director of electricity; Although the plan provides for the participation of other ministries such as health, interior and defense.
If the management of crises makes it necessary, emergency services and public safety can be mobilized, to deal with the “rescue and save of the victims”; health services, to guarantee their reception in the health establishments; Social services, to provide assistance to affected people; Security services, which can isolate the affected area, maintain order in it, evacuate people or manage traffic; and technical services, to obtain “the immediate rehabilitation of essential public services”.
The plan explains that there will usually be a previous notice before an electricity crisis occurs, but recognizes that “a situation can develop in which there is no time between threat/risk and the appearance of the first negative impacts (and electric cuts)”. In cases such as that which took place on Monday, the Ministry of the Ecological Transition will communicate to the European Commission, to the competent authorities of the EU Member States of the same region and the neighboring countries, such as Morocco and Andorra, “through all the communication channels available until they provide confirmation of the message” of the message; Something that must have happened yesterday. All system operators require the plan, the real information will be exchanged to try to overcome the crisis.
The plan also provides for the adoption by Red Electric (Redeia) of the emergency plans and the replacement of the service, which contemplate “the automatic blow of certain generation structures after a default contingency”, so that the power is reduced to maintain the safety of the system. It also contemplates the use of replacement reserves or modification of international interconnection programs. Finally, it provides that “replacement plans” to “return the electrical system to its normal operating status after serious accidents that caused power cuts”, as happened. The law also guarantees the government the ability to use strategic natural gas reserves to satisfy an emergency situation.
Once the crisis has been approved, the Ministry of the ecological transition must perform an analysis that will include at least the causes that triggered it, the measures adopted to relieve it, the impact of the offer cut and the improvement proposals so that it is not repeated.
