The committee for the analysis of the electrical blackout on April 28th held its fifth meeting on Monday under the chairmanship of the third vice president of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, which took place at Endesa’s offices in Madrid.
The meeting was attended by the CEO of the electricity company, José Bogas, along with his operational team, as reported by ministerial sources, who did not provide further details of the meeting. The committee will meet again on Tuesday at the Ministry’s headquarters.
Last week, the committee already held its fourth meeting at Iberdrola’s offices in Madrid, and more than a week ago, the second meeting took place at Red Eléctrica’s headquarters.
Following the incident on April 28th, the Government agreed to form the committee to analyze the circumstances that led to the electricity crisis.
In addition to the cabinet led by Sara Aagesen, this committee includes representatives from the Government’s Presidency, through the National Security Department, and other ministries: the Ministry of Defense, with the National Intelligence Center and the State Department; the Ministry of the Interior, through the National Center for Critical Infrastructure Protection and the Cyber Coordination Office; and the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service.
Other entities are also part of the committee, such as the Nuclear Safety Council and the National Cybersecurity Institute of Spain. It also has the support of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), as well as the possible inclusion of experts in the field and representatives from other administrations and the public or private sector in order to have the best information on what happened.
Furthermore, in its second meeting, the committee agreed to establish two working groups, one on the technical error and another to analyze a possible cyberattack as causes of the power outage.
PRELIMINARY REPORT FROM ENTSO-E.
Last Friday, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) preliminarily stated that the blackout on April 28th was due to a «complex sequence of events» and that there were two periods of voltage and frequency oscillations in the European electrical system during the half-hour before the incident.
The association, responsible for the independent European investigation into the incident, reported in a statement that in the half-hour before the blackout, which occurred at 12:33, there were two oscillations in power and frequency between 12:03 and 12:07 and between 12:19 and 12:21.
«The Transmission System Operators of Spain (Red Eléctrica) and France (RTE) took measures to mitigate these oscillations. At the time of the incident, there were no oscillations, and the variables of the electrical system were within the normal operating range,» explained ENTSO-E, noting that Spain was exporting 1,000 megawatts (MW) to France, 2,000 MW to Portugal, and 800 MW to Morocco up to that point.
The organization indicated that the event began at 12:32:57 and that, in the following 20 seconds, there were several disconnections in the south of Spain totaling about 2,200 MW.