As the most visible effects of the blackout are left behind, the focus is on its origin. On Tuesday, a number of significant statements were made by authorities and officials, such as Red Eléctrica de España (REE), a private company but one in five shares is owned by the Spanish government, by Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, and by environmental activist, physicist and researcher Antonio Turiel. They have offered different points of view and points of attention, which are also compatible.

What the supplier company says

On Tuesday morning, the head of the REE service held a press conference. He explains that at 12:30 p.m. on Monday there was “a first event compatible with a generation loss in the southwest of the Spanish electricity system” and half a second later there was “a second event compatible with a generation loss”. The entire electrical system was then destabilized and the entire system collapsed three seconds later.

As for the causes, the person in charge of the REE rejects the “human error”, as well as the possibility of a cyberattack: “This morning we were able to conclude that there was no intrusion.” He points out that at the moment they do not know which specific energy installations have suffered a “loss of generation”, but they will know it at the end of the study. However, he explains that the main generators of electric power at the time of the blackout were photovoltaic and wind farms, especially photovoltaic, and points to this type of installation as a possible source of the blackout.

Government of Spain

Sánchez made statements in Moncloa after participating in the meetings of the National Security Council and the Council of Ministers, chaired by the king. He has not ruled out “any hypothesis” or that the blackout was the result of an attack and has promised a thorough investigation. But he highlights the fact that the REE has rejected the cyberattack, and above all, it has focused on another place without even assuring anything: “The citizens must be clear that the government will go deep on this issue. Reforms will be carried out, taking the necessary measures, and we will demand all the responsibilities from private operators.”

Significant is the title given to the news that includes Sánchez’s statements on Moncloa’s own website: “We will hold private operators accountable and activate the necessary measures to prevent it from happening again.”

by Antonio Turiel

Turiel has been working on energy issues for years and is very critical of the ways in which renewable energies are being implemented. He was interviewed Tuesday morning by Onda Vasca. As the Spanish Government and REE have done, it has put the origin of the blackout in the photovoltaic installation, but also in the characteristics and deficiencies of the electrical system.

According to Turiel, at the time of the blackout “a lot of photovoltaic energy was being generated and, due to its technical characteristics, the photovoltaic system reacts poorly to changes in demand. The problem with the electrical system is that you always have to anticipate changes in demand and the photovoltaic system is not very flexible in this sense.” According to the scientist, this has a technical solution, but it is “expensive” and “cost saving” has been a priority in Spain. He explains that in 2021 a similar accident occurred at European level, in response to which REE tightened the regulation, but that this regulation has not been applied to installations that had already been established before that year.

“The fundamental problem is not so much the collapse of the network, but the instability. This is due to the fact that a lot of renewable energy has been integrated without the receiver stabilization systems that should be installed and, in addition, it is mandatory according to the current regulations," explains the environmental activist. He explains that he gave the solution to the blackout by burning large amounts of gas, but warns that this is not the solution: “The key is not to burn more gas, but to mold photovoltaic systems so that they have the power to adapt to these changes.”

In any case, and beyond Monday’s blackout, like the ecological movement, Turiel advocates in his books and lectures the radical change of the energy and social model as the only option to face the multiple crisis of the system. "We will have to reduce energy consumption by 80% in the next few decades," Urko Apaolaza, a journalist, told LUZ in an interview in 2023.