Spain's government has pointed fingers at power companies after a massive blackout hit the country and Portugal back in April. The outage happened around noon on April 28th when both nations got cut off from Europe's main electricity network for hours. Schools shut down early, workers went home, and people got trapped in elevators and trains across rural areas.
Minister Sara Aagesen released a report explaining what went wrong nearly two months later. She said Red Eléctrica, the grid operator, messed up their power calculations for that day. The company should have turned on backup thermal plants but decided they weren't needed.
Private power companies also share the blame according to Aagesen. These firms were supposed to control voltage levels but failed to do their job when electricity demand spiked. They were getting paid to manage this but didn't absorb enough voltage when the system needed it most.
Opposition politicians criticized the government's green energy push after the blackout. They claimed Spain's heavy focus on renewable power and moving away from nuclear energy caused the problem. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had hinted that private companies were responsible right after the outage happened.
The government ruled out cyber attacks as a cause. Officials stressed that renewable energy wasn't behind the blackout despite what critics said about Spain's environmental policies causing the chaos.
Minister Sara Aagesen released a report explaining what went wrong nearly two months later. She said Red Eléctrica, the grid operator, messed up their power calculations for that day. The company should have turned on backup thermal plants but decided they weren't needed.
Private power companies also share the blame according to Aagesen. These firms were supposed to control voltage levels but failed to do their job when electricity demand spiked. They were getting paid to manage this but didn't absorb enough voltage when the system needed it most.
Opposition politicians criticized the government's green energy push after the blackout. They claimed Spain's heavy focus on renewable power and moving away from nuclear energy caused the problem. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had hinted that private companies were responsible right after the outage happened.
The government ruled out cyber attacks as a cause. Officials stressed that renewable energy wasn't behind the blackout despite what critics said about Spain's environmental policies causing the chaos.
