Legal Insurrection readers will recall that a sudden and unprecedented power outage struck the entire Iberian Peninsula in late April, plunging nearly all of Spain and Portugal into darkness for several hours.
The blackout, one of the largest in recent European history, also briefly affected parts of southern France and Andorra. Essential services, public transportation, telecommunications, and financial systems were severely disrupted. At least eight deaths have been linked to outage-related incidents.
The blackout was triggered by a rapid, cascading failure in the grid that resulted in the loss of about 60% of Spain’s electricity supply within seconds. The event was linked to the grid’s inability to handle the variability and intermittency of renewables, especially solar and wind, without sufficient backup from more stable sources like gas or nuclear power.
Now, in the aftermath of this blackout that could have been much worse, Spain has significantly increased its reliance on natural gas-fired power plants to stabilize its electricity grid. This strategic shift is the direct result of concerns about the grid’s ability to handle high levels of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind, which accounted for a substantial share of generation during the outage.
The output of combined-cycle gas turbines [CCGT], a more steady generation technology than solar, jumped 37% in the two weeks after the outage, compared with the two weeks prior, data from power grid operator Red Electrica show. Their average share of Spain’s power mix increased to 18% from about 12%….CCGTs can be a source of around-the-clock generation, and turbines also provide kinetic energy to the grid, a key element needed to keep the network stable. The day after the blackout, their output soared to 216 gigawatt-hours, a 157% jump compared to the day before the outage, and over three times more than two days before.Although the grid operator’s mandate is to meet demand at the lowest possible cost, it can also modify the generation mix to maintain an “adequate voltage profile,” Red Electrica said.The use of CCGTs is probably adding between €5 and €10 per megawatt-hours to costs, according to Javier Revuelta, senior principal at energy consultancy AFRY AB, who estimates that as many as 2 gigawatts of extra gas-fired capacity is being added daily to the Spanish mix compared to the days before the blackout.
The Blooberg article cited above focuses on the increased cost of gas-supplied energy. However, as the people of the Iberian Peninsula discovered, having electricity when you need it (especially after dark) is priceless.
Reliable energy sources are a treasure, and I strongly suspect that is why the recent election in Portugal went as it did.
Portugal’s far-right Chega won a record vote share in Sunday’s snap election and was vying to become the main opposition party as the ruling centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) again fell short of a majority needed to end a long period of instability.Prime Minister Luis Montenegro hailed the result as a vote of confidence in his AD which won most seats in parliament.
By “far-right”, what is actually meant is Portuguese who love their country and enjoy civilized living.
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