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National power outage

Government report finds Spain's electricity grid vulnerable and predisposed to future attacks

The minister of ecological transition has announced a package of measures to strenghten the network to prevent another national power blackout happening

Bruno Pérez

Wednesday, 18 June 2025, 10:35

While sifting through the "contradictory, incomplete and sometimes non-existent" information, as described by minister of ecological transition and third deputy PM Sara Aagesen, provided by the electricity companies in search of the circumstances surrounding the blackout of 28 April, the members of the expert committee assembled by the government have found a handful of shortcomings and vulnerabilities in the system that could have made it an easy target for a cyber attack, although this has now been ruled out as a cause.

On Tuesday, 17 June, Aagesen provided a cryptic explanation regarding the cause of the national power outage, amid a tense climate of various speculations about the suicidal mix that might have led to the incident: the excessive weight of renewables and the absence of back-up energy. According to the minister, the blackout was the result of the lack of support capacity of the system to control the disturbances that were being noticed at the start of the day on 28 April. Although the central government admits that the larger part of the responsibility should be carried by the system operator, another portion of it must be attributed to the private electricity companies that didn't provide enough support to the system in the crucial moments.

Aagesen announced that a new royal decree is in the making, to prevent future blackouts from happening.

A decree to prevent future incidents

Apart from the commitment to unspecified measures aimed at addressing the security gaps identified by the government's expert committee, which apparently leave Spain's electricity system vulnerable to cyber attacks, the rest of Aagesen's announcements mostly concern initiatives the government has already planned and is merely pledging to accelerate.

The first commitment made by the third deputy PM, which will be included in a royal decree next week, is to tighten supervision and verification of compliance with the obligations of each agent in the electricity system - a very generic statement that seems to appeal directly to both the system operator, Red Eléctrica, for the insufficient voltage coverage provided on the day of the blackout, and the electricity companies, for the alleged failure to comply with their obligations to support the stations activated by Red Eléctrica to stabilise the voltage in the event of possible oscillations.

Aagesen included the acceleration of the separation of the national energy from the current national markets and competition commission (CNMC). Although the government's report states that there was sufficient backup power to have stabilised the voltage, Aagesen announced that the measures will enhance the resources that can be used to control the voltage in cases of instability and the number of renewable installations, which will increase from "hundreds to thousands".

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surinenglish Government report finds Spain's electricity grid vulnerable and predisposed to future attacks

Government report finds Spain's electricity grid vulnerable and predisposed to future attacks
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