Spain‘s green energy revolution was under scrutiny yesterday for making massive power cuts ‘much worse’ as millions were plunged into blackout chaos.
The country declared a state of emergency last night and said it was deploying 30,000 police officers as part of security measures to deal with the mayhem caused by the calamitous outage.
As power networks shut down across Spain and Portugal, dramatic videos showed mayhem with traffic lights switched off and shops and railway stations going dark. Panic-buyers emptied supermarket shelves, airports shut and trains ground to a halt.
Spain’s increasing reliance on solar and wind was said to have exacerbated the power cuts because the renewables can make the grid less stable.
Pandemonium struck at lunchtime, when solar power and wind were together making up more than 60 per cent of electricity generation.
Power networks warned the disruption could last for several days. They blamed ‘extreme temperature variations’ in Spain, causing a ‘strong oscillation’ in the electrical network – although this has raised eyebrows as it was a relatively mild 22C (68F), cooler than parts of the UK.
Spain has one of the highest proportions of renewable energy – 56 per cent on average – in Europe.
And just days ago on April 16, Spain’s power grid ran entirely on renewable energy, including wind, solar and hydro power for the first time.
Spain’s green energy revolution was under scrutiny yesterday for making massive power cuts ‘much worse’ as millions were plunged into blackout chaos. Pictured: Crowds waiting for a taxi at Barajas Airport in Madrid
The country declared a state of emergency last night and said it was deploying 30,000 police officers as part of security measures to deal with the mayhem caused by the calamitous outage. Pictured: People resting on the floor of Atocha train station in Madrid
As power networks shut down across Spain and Portugal, dramatic videos showed mayhem with traffic lights switched off and shops and railway stations going dark. Pictured: Darkness in Barcelona, Spain
Kathryn Porter, an independent energy consultant, said: ‘The more you have wind and solar on the grid, the less stable the grid becomes and so the harder it is to manage faults.
‘I would say there’s a strong chance that the large amount of solar on the system created the conditions for this to be a widespread blackout and made it much worse.’
Traditional generators, like coal and hydroelectric plants or gas turbines, are connected directly to the grid via heavy spinning machines that store inertia, which acts as a shock absorber, protecting against any supply disruption due to changes in electrical frequency.
Ms Porter added: ‘When you are in a low-stability situation, it’s much harder to control what happens. Electrical things don’t like big changes in frequency and shut themselves down. They all start tripping off.
‘So, your grid operator will have been sitting there, trying to react to the changes in frequency, but they can’t do it fast enough. So that causes a cascading grid failure.’
Portugal’s grid operator REN blamed ‘extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain’ which caused ‘anomalous oscillations’. But Steve Loftus, a utility industry analyst, said: ‘I don’t see anything unusual in the weather that would cause this issue. The cynic in me wonders if there are people who don’t want to admit that it’s a renewables issue – if it was – because a lot of people are very invested in its success.
‘At the time of the blackout, the grid was very high on solar.’
The Spanish parliament closed and play was suspended at the Madrid Open tennis tournament. The city’s mayor urged people to stay where they were as the city dealt with the disaster. But huge queues formed outside shops, banks and petrol stations as residents and tourists attempted to stockpile and take out cash.
Just days ago on April 16, Spain’s power grid ran entirely on renewable energy, including wind, solar and hydro power for the first time. Pictured: Solar plant in Spain’s Navarra province
The Spanish parliament closed and play was suspended at the Madrid Open tennis tournament (pictured, spectators roaming inside the venue during the outage)
The city’s mayor urged people to stay where they were as the city dealt with the disaster. Pictured: People attempt to hitchhike in Madrid
But huge queues formed outside shops, banks and petrol stations as residents and tourists attempted to stockpile and take out cash. Pictured: People queue in a train station in Barcelona
Trains and metro services were shut down in both countries, with passengers stuck in tunnels and on railway tracks. Pictured: People sit in candelight and use flashlights in Madrid
People shop for groceries using their mobile phone torch in Madrid
People queue to withdraw cash in Madrid as credit card payment becomes unavailable during the widespread power outage
A police car in Valencia, as part of the police presence rolled out nationwide to deal with the outage
Members of the Red Cross push trolleys with water bottles and blankets near Joaquim Sorolla station in Valencia, Spain
People get out of subway cars at Baixo-Chiado station in Portugal after the major blackout halts much public transport
A woman has a drink in the dark inside a Madrid bar with outside light coming in through the door during the nationwide power outage
Traffic jams on the M-30 as the blackout hit
People leave the airport in Lisbon, Portugal, amid the widespread shutdown
People leave Lisbon airport with large amounts of luggage
A car drives down an unlit street in Lisbon during the widespread outage
Trains and metro services were shut down in both countries, with passengers stuck in tunnels and on railway tracks.
Lisbon’s main airport reportedly shut down temporarily and flights were suspended.
British holidaymaker Adrian Coles, who was heading back to the UK after a weekend in Madrid, said: ‘People are fighting over taxis and the streets are mostly at a standstill.
‘Police are at junctions but at some they are just standing and not directing while at others they have whistles and are directing traffic.
‘Our taxi driver said he won’t try to go back to the city as he doesn’t think it would be wise. He’s dropped us and he’s going home.’
He said they managed to reach the airport, which was still running on a back-up power supply, but that ‘lots of things are shut down to conserve power’.
‘Landlines appear to be down with hotels struggling with the number of guests asking for help,’ he added. ‘The mobile network failed in the city. Routers are off in the city and with so many people data isn’t working.’
He said that with access to the internet down, ‘rumours were spreading’ among locals and visitors.
A family eats a snack by candlelight during the blackout in Barcelona
People queue for an ATM machine in Lisbon during the huge outage
Customers buy gas bottles in a petrol station in Seville during the massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France
People walk between cars with their luggage in Madrid
A view of empty hospital emergency beds at a hospital during the blackout
People queue for an ATM in Lisbon during a massive power cut
Pictures show people being evacuated from trains in Spain amid the outage
A worker tries unsuccessfully to use her mobile after the blackout hit Madrid
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the cause of the outage was still being determined but that hydroelectric plants had been reactivated, ‘which should allow us to recover the supply across Spain soon’.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre issued a statement saying there was no sign the outage was due to a cyberattack.
Eduardo Prieto, of Spanish power distributor Red Electrica, said it was unprecedented and called the event ‘exceptional and extraordinary’.
Power outages gripped Spain at around 12.30pm local time yesterday, plunging millions into darkness. Spain’s nuclear power plants automatically stopped, but diesel generators were activated to keep them in ‘safe condition’, officials said.
But its nuclear safety council has confirmed all seven of the country’s nuclear reactors are safe.
Four of them stopped operating automatically once the power cut hit, but emergency generators immediately kicked in.
The other three reactors were not operating at the time, but emergency generators switched on to keep them in a safe condition, the council added.
While power has been restored to around 75 per cent of Spain, Portugal’s acting Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has said the country expects to see power fully restored ‘within hours’.
But he added this may take longer than in Spain, which relies on contributions from France and Morocco, not solely its own resources, as Portugal does.
Spain’s Mr Sanchez said in a national address: ‘We do not yet have conclusive information on the reasons for this (power) cut, so I ask the people, as we have done in past crises, to inform themselves through official channels.
‘For the time being, there’s no evidence of any civil protection problems. I repeat, there are no problems of insecurity.’
Chaos has ravaged the two countries since yesterday’s outages.
Rows of cars were pictured lining up at petrol stations as people hoped to fill up their vehicles and fuel cans, with expats detailing how they have tried to power generators to keep their homes going.
The Spanish PM called on citizens to avoid travel and use their mobile phones sparingly, describing telecommunications as being at a ‘critical moment’.
A British holidaymaker in Madrid described the situation in the city centre as ‘carnage’, telling MailOnline: ‘People are starting to panic. It’s going to get really bad if they don’t restore power quickly.’
Videos online show railway networks in Spanish cities plunged into chaos, with people being evacuated through tunnels as blackouts hit underground stations and halted trains.
Maddie Sephton, from London, was on the Madrid Metro when the power outage occurred, told Sky News that she was stuck on a train for 20 minutes before a staff member pried the doors open manually.
‘We got on the train and everything was fine. But then everything went dark,’ she said. Passengers had to climb 15 flights of stairs to get out of the metro.
An ex-pat called Lesley, has lived in Spain for 11 years with her husband, told the BBC that they are concerned about the effects of the outages.
‘We are worried about food, water, cash and petrol in case this goes on for a couple of days,’ she said.
‘My husband is driving around now trying to find a petrol station that’s open to get petrol for the generator so that we can plug in the fridge.’
A British expat living in Barcelona told MailOnline that ‘nobody seems to know what’s going on’ in Spain ‘because nobody has signal’.
The English teacher said he only found out about the European blackout from British reports: ‘I can get signal on my rooftop, but I can’t get signal down below. One floor down I have nothing.
‘The traffic lights are still working… The underground is not working apparently. Lots of parts of the public transport are not working.’
Lottie Feist, 23, who lives in Lisbon, told of panic across the Portuguese capital as traffic lights cut out.
The translation student at Nova University said: ‘There is no electricity, nothing is working.
‘We don’t know what’s happening or why we are having a blackout.
‘The roads are absolute carnage as no traffic lights are working. All the power is down, and businesses are being impacted.
‘It’s terrifying, people will be stuck in elevators, and everything has completely shut down.’
