Spain: April current failure due to mains errors, not cyber attack
Spain: April current failure due to mains errors, not cyber attack
On Tuesday, the Spanish government announced that the Massive power Switched off from the power supply by people in Spain and Portugal, caused by technical and planning errors. These shortcomings meant that the power grid was unable to cope with a sudden increase in voltage.
causes of the power failure
The Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aage, who is responsible for the country's energy policy, told journalists that a tension increase to small failures in the power grid, especially in the south of Spain. These small failures quickly escalated and finally led to a large -scale system failure in both Iberian countries.
no signs of a cyber attack
Aageen concluded that the failure was due to a cyber attack. The power failure started in Spain shortly after noon on April 28 and lasted until dark. He led to considerable disorders in Mobile phone networks, internet connections and other critical Infrastructures. Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity, which corresponded to about 60 % of the power supply. Portugal, whose power grid is connected to the Spain, also failed. Only the island areas of both countries were spared.
Fast escalation of the failure
"The whole thing happened in 12 seconds, with most of the loss of electricity occurring in just five seconds," said Aage. Several technical causes contributed to this incident, including "bad planning" by the Spanish network operator Red Eléctrica, who found no replacement for a power plant that should have contributed to the compensation of performance fluctuations. Some power plants that were switched off as the disorders began as a precaution.
Restoration of the power supply
The power supply was completely restored in the early morning hours of the following day. The government's report will be published on Tuesday-49 days after the incident-and contains analyzes of Spain's national security authorities, which, according to the minister, did not find any evidence of targeted cyber sabotage by foreign actors.
public discussion about the causes
In the weeks after the power failure, the citizens and experts were unsure about the causes of the event in a region that is not known for power failures. The incident triggered a heated debate as to whether Spain's high proportions of renewable energies and the inadequate energy production by nuclear power plants or gas -fired power plants could have something to do with the failure of the power grid, which the government repeatedly rejected.commitment to renewable energies
Spain is at the forefront of European transition to renewable energies and in 2024 produced almost 57 % of its electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind, water and solar energy. The country also plans to gradually shut down its nuclear power plants.The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez rejected such speculation and defended the country's quick expansion of renewable energies. He asked for patience and emphasized that his government would not deviate "one millimeter" of the plans to energetic transformation, which aims to create 81 % of electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
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