Electricity: lessons from the great Iberian blackout
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While the cause of the incident that hit the Iberian Peninsula on Monday, April 28, remains unclear, it has nonetheless highlighted how complex and fragile the networks that support our daily lives are.
Since the great Iberian blackout of April 28, we have collectively made progress in our electrical knowledge. Experts have flooded the media to explain to us how complex and fragile the networks on which our daily lives depend are. The facts are indisputable: in five seconds, 60% of Spain's electricity production evaporated following two incidents that led to the disconnection of all the power plants. The question remains why. Many hypotheses have been considered. But investigations are ongoing. In the meantime, like in Cluedo, everyone is looking for the culprit, and what is striking is that this Spanish problem has immediately become a French debate.
Even before knowing more, most of our experts, including André Merlin, former president of RTE (which manages the French electricity grid), had formed their opinion: the Spanish, and the Portuguese, who are connected to their grid, have placed too much trust in renewable energies, whether wind or solar, since they have become their primary source of energy. The Peninsula believed it had proven that it could be made easi…
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