“In response to the published information, we send a message of calm. Red Eléctrica never spoke of a risk of blackout, neither imminent nor widespread,” the company wrote in a post on the social network X.
Red Eléctrica (REE) added that it recently observed “voltage fluctuations that should be avoided but did not pose a risk to supply, as they were within permissible limits.”
“Therefore, as a system operator, we acted as always, proposing in recent days the measures we consider necessary to strengthen the robustness of the electrical system,” the company emphasized, explaining that “the purpose of these specific measures is to reduce these dynamics that began to appear due to the evolution the system is experiencing.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Red Eléctrica informed Spain’s National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) that it detected “sudden voltage fluctuations” in the past two weeks and called on the regulator to approve measures to enhance supply security.
In a document sent to the CNMC, the company requested that the proposed changes be submitted to public consultation before final approval, warning that the recorded fluctuations “could cause disconnections of consumption and production that ultimately destabilize the electrical system.”
Following the April 28 blackout in Portugal and Spain, the system operator stressed that the tensions observed in the last fortnight occur “within established limits.”
The company linked these variations to sudden changes in production schedules, particularly in renewable energy generation, as well as to the response time of plants responsible for dynamic voltage control.
Although they were “within” defined parameters, these fluctuations “could impact supply security if the proposed changes are not implemented,” which is why Red Eléctrica requested urgent approval, “temporarily and exceptionally,” of various system operation procedures.
The proposed changes involve implications for programming processes, technical constraints, secondary regulation, and voltage control.
The operator proposed modifying the system’s technical constraints to reduce real-time energy imbalance.
With this change, it aims to require scheduled production groups to reserve all their capacity for offering in balancing markets, preventing facilities from reducing reserved power in intraday markets.
The plan also includes control measures and adjustments in the process of validating compliance with the voltage control service.
The proposed changes will be subject to public consultation until October 15 and will be effective for a consecutive 30-day period, extendable, at the operator’s request, for additional periods of up to 15 days.
