The April blackout was the result of a “combination of factors” that caused a high voltage overload that the Spanish electricity system was unable to absorb for several reasons, including “poor planning” by the operator, REE (Red Eléctrica de España), the Spanish government revealed.

In addition to failures on the part of the Spanish electricity grid operator in terms of management and planning, there were also failures in the response of other operators and energy distributors in Spain, with suspicions of non-compliance with the protocols laid down for voltage overload situations, according to Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen.

“There was enough generation capacity to respond,” Aagesen pointed out, making it clear that the problem was not the lack of generation, but rather the fact that Red Eléctrica had not scheduled all the energy it should have had the day before or in the hours leading up to the incident. There were more than enough plants available, but the network manager did not consider them in their schedule.

The government also pointed to “inappropriate” actions by energy distributors. On the one hand, synchronous generation plants (combined cycle, nuclear or hydroelectric) were not absorbing the voltage as they should have, which contributed to the overload that caused the blackout.

On the other hand, Aagesen highlighted that some of the plants that were shut down due to the power peaks at 12:33 p.m. (11:33 a.m. in Portugal) should not have done so, given the power levels needed to ensure the system’s operation, once again placing part of the blame on the energy companies.

The analysis carried out by the Government concluded that the blackout was caused by a problem that resulted from several factors. However, the minister highlighted the poor regulation of the network due to inadequate planning (clearly referring to the network manager) and the fact that several operators were not carrying out proper regulation (referring to the electricity companies).

The minister also said that the commission to investigate the blackout in the Iberian Peninsula created by the Spanish Government concluded, on the other hand, that there was no cyberattack on April 28, as the Spanish government had previously stated.

Sara Aagesen was speaking at a press conference in Madrid, at the end of the weekly meeting of the Spanish Council of Ministers, in which she presented the conclusions of the commission to investigate the blackout of April 28 created by the Spanish Government.