CGNP Criticizes Red Eléctrica's Recent Report on the Iberian Peninsula Blackout
The Report misleads regarding inertia
500 kilovolt insulator at Diablo Canyon Power Plant - Photo Credit: CGNP
Red Eléctrica (REE) is Spain’s national Independent System Operator, analogous to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO.)
REE issued a report on June 18, 2025 regarding causes of the April 28, 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout which is misleading regarding the role of insufficient synchronous grid inertia (SGI) in causing the blackout. The report fails to make the connection between REE’s grid on April 28, 2025 having sufficient SGI to prevent a cascading blackout. CGNP believes the reason for this misdirection is that the current Spanish government does not wish to admit their electricity policies which advocate for ever-increasing percentages of solar and wind generation are problematic. Several independent analyses show Spain’s policies caused the unnecessary blackout which killed at least seven Spaniards and had a total cost in lost productivity and damaged equipment likely denominated in the billions of U.S. dollars.
A criticism of Spain’s electricity policies favoring solar and wind are one of the themes in CGNP’s upcoming longer article regarding the similarities between REE and CAISO, - both are controlled by their respective governments. Furthermore, both REE and CAISO are supporting their government’s unnecessary plans to end the use of nuclear power. For California, the planned end in 2030. For Spain the planned end to nuclear power is 2035.
A technical note is I configured my Google Chrome browser to automatically translate Spanish to English. This may be a necessary step to obtain the REE report in English. In case you have difficulties, please email me at government [at] CGNP [dot] org to request an English language copy. Here’s CGNP’s letter:
Red Eléctrica
Sede social - Paseo Conde de los Gaitanes, 177 - 28109 Alcobendas (Spain), Alcobendas, Spain
+34 916 50 85 00
digame [at] redeia [dot] com
24 Junio 2025
Hello, Red Eléctrica:
I serve as the Senior Legal Researcher of the independent nonprofit NGO Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc. (CGNP.) I have also served as a professor of science and engineering. Since 2016, I have been drafting and making legal filings with the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC.) I've been carefully reviewing Red Eléctrica's daily generation supply data. Thank you for supplying such detailed information.
CGNP has also contacted the nuclear power advocacy group Foro Nuclear in Madrid. Foro Nuclear is copied on this message.
California, like Spain is planning on needlessly shutting down all its nuclear power plants. CGNP has been a vigorous opponent of California's nuclear shutdown plans. CGNP led the opposition to the plan to shut down Diablo Canyon (Nuclear) Power Plant in 2025. We helped the coalition to obtain an extension to 2030. We are the first group in the world to achieve such a challenging goal.
CGNP strongly objects to the misleading claim regarding the lack of importance of synchronous grid inertia (SGI) in your 18 June 2025 report "Blackout in Spanish Peninsular Electrical System the 28th of April 2025." https://d1n1o4zeyfu21r.cloudfront.net/WEB_Incident_%2028A_SpanishPeninsularElectricalSystem_18june25.pdf The shortage of SGI was the primary cause of the 28 April 2025 blackout. The lack of adequate SGI led to the inability of Spain's power grid to maintain frequency control. Spain's power grid collapsed in about 15 seconds.
This can be readily seen by examining the actions that Red Eléctrica has taken at mid-day to prevent another blackout. Compared to 28 April 2025, there is about 3,000 MW of additional nuclear power and combined cycle gas power being dispatched at mid-day. Generators powered by those energy sources provide abundant SGI. For details, please see CGNP's 04 March 2024 article, "Why is Grid Inertia Important? Without sufficient synchronous grid inertia, the grid becomes unstable and a blackout occurs," By Gene Nelson, Ph.D., March 4, 2024, GreenNUKE Substack. https://greennuke.substack.com/p/why-is-grid-inertia-important
CGNP looks forward to seeing a correction regarding SGI in your report, "Blackout in Spanish Peninsular Electrical System the 28th of April 2025."
CGNP’s Request
CGNP’s Substack posts now have a circulation of about one thousand. We are hopeful that one or more of you has a connection to someone in Spain. Please ask that connection to make a protest like CGNP’s to Red Eléctrica - or encourage the nuclear advocacy group Foro Nuclear in Madrid, Spain to lodge a protest.
“Mil gracias” is the Spanish phrase for taking that action.
Here is a short article from the website of the conservative opposition party (GPP) https://www.pp.es/. I used the website search capability to search for the Spanish phrase "emergia nuclear." I configured my Google Chrome browser to automatically translate from Spanish to English.
"The GPP points out that nuclear energy is essential for a secure electricity supply and demands a reversal of the government's planned closure of the power plants." May 17, 2025
In the plenary debate on the Popular (Party) Group's (GPP's) Bill
The GPP's Energy spokesperson in Congress, Juan Diego Requena, warns of the irreversible risks of the nuclear closure that the Executive intends to carry out, and therefore urges it to listen at least to the PSOE of Extremadura, which asks that the Almaraz plant not be closed.
He emphasizes that, as of today, there are closure orders for four power plants in our country and that the measure would endanger the security of supply and would increase the cost of electricity, as warned by "all the independent reports that have evaluated it and which assure that the price of electricity will rise, especially for industry."
He adds that the EU and organizations such as the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the International Energy Agency defend that nuclear energy is a green energy that plays a leading role in the ecological transition.
"If we didn't have this energy, our electrical system would be less environmentally friendly, it would cause blackouts, as has happened, it would skyrocket the electricity bill and lead to the ruin of the regions that depend on it," he emphasizes....
Red Eléctrica just acknowledged receipt of my email. I was required to send a reply accepting their handling of my personal information, in compliance with EU directives.