Well, Well - Spain/Portugal Blackout In April Was Caused By Failures At Conventional Plants , Not By Renewables

[hatrack]

In the aftermath of a massive blackout that hit Spain and Portugal in April, some pundits were quick to blame wind and solar for the loss of power. But official inquiries have found that a shortfall in conventional power led to the outages.

Gas and nuclear power plants were on hand to fill in sudden gaps in generation. But on April 28, the gas generators failed to ramp up in time, according to two new reports, one from the grid operator, the other from the Spanish government. When demand suddenly outstripped supply, other power plants began disconnecting from the grid to avoid incurring damage.

“Had conventional power plants done their job in controlling the voltage, there would have been no blackout,” said Concha Sánchez, chief of operations for grid operator Redeia. The government says that Redeia itself is also at fault for not having enough conventional power plants switched on.

Spain currently draws 43 percent of its power from wind and solar. When, in 2016, South Australia was at the same level of wind and solar generation, it also endured a widespread blackout. With a few fixes, however, it has been able to further build out renewable power without destabilizing the grid.

EDIT

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/spain-portugal-blackout-causes-wind-solar

[NNadir]

1. One hears this sort of thing, but I think it disingenous.

What it really means is that so called "renewable energy" cannot function in the absence of conventional plants, something obviated by observing the atmospheric concentrations of CO₂.

If thermal plants didn't exist in Spain then what?

All the "percent talk" in the world cannot hide the fact that so called "renewable energy" depends on fossil fuels. Blaming the gas plants demonstrates this.

Nuclear plants do not generally feather up and down. They are best run at 100% (or close to it) capacity utilization. They are, by far, the most reliable power plants in the world.