In its newly published technical report, the TSO confirmed that it followed all operational procedures assuming all parties would meet their responsibilities. “The system had sufficient scheduled resources, but they were not delivered effectively,” said operations director Sanchez Concha. If voltage control had worked as planned, the grid would have remained synchronised, and “there would have been no blackout.”
The TSO also pinpointed a specific solar plant in Badajoz as the source of the first oscillation at 12:03 CET. The site had previously shown similar behaviour, possibly due to malfunctioning internal controls.
Red Electrica responded by reducing flows on French and Portuguese interconnectors and activating unused transmission lines. Though this caused a slight voltage increase, levels remained within acceptable limits.
Problems escalated when unjustified disconnections followed, including a 355 MW transformer in southern Spain and over 700 MW of renewable generation in the southwest. The total generation loss exceeded 2 GW, and voltage could no longer be maintained.
Energy minister Sara Aagesen also pointed to weak forecasting and plant underperformance as contributing factors.
