The total power outage in Spain on April 28 starkly exposed the weaknesses of an ideologized energy policy. For almost ten hours, the country was paralyzed, an unprecedented event in its recent history and in the European context. This incident highlights that the forced phase-out of nuclear energy and an insufficient grid infrastructure jeopardize the foundation of the Spanish economy.
The High Cost of an Ideologized Energy Policy
The international ridicule Spain faced due to the blackout serves as a prime example of what an ideologized, fragile, and sectarian energy policy entails. The efforts of the left-wing government to hastily push through the “energy transition” have proven costly and reckless. Warnings and risks associated with accelerating solar and wind energy were ignored, without first promoting a robust and modern grid capable of handling such intermittent loads.
Inconvenient Facts About the Power Outage in Spain
On the day of the blackout, which affected millions of people and businesses in Spain, the electricity grid operated with an inertia level 30% below the minimum recommended by ENTSO-E, the European organization coordinating electricity transmission system operators.
What is Inertia in the Power Grid? Inertia is a crucial element for the stability of an electrical system. It defines the grid’s ability to absorb sudden frequency fluctuations and prevent widespread outages. This parameter indicates how long the kinetic energy stored in large rotating generators – such as those in thermal or nuclear power plants – would last if power generation were suddenly interrupted. A longer inertia time gives the system more room to correct imbalances. A low-inertia grid is much more likely to experience supply disruptions, as indeed occurred on that day.
The Role of Photovoltaic and Nuclear Energy It is essential for Red Eléctrica to clarify why the system could operate with such a low level of inertia on a workday characterized by high demand and a significant proportion of photovoltaic solar energy (over 60% of total production from nine in the morning). Was the blackout a singular failure to foresee dramatic consequences, or an error resulting from ideological and thoughtless decisions?
The LEMUR research group at the University of Oviedo reported that on the day of the blackout, nuclear energy provided half of the system’s total inertia, even though only two of the seven reactors were operating at 100%. If all nuclear reactors had been fully operational, the required minimum inertia threshold would have been met, reducing the likelihood of a massive power outage. This fact is a clear warning about the risks of shutting down nuclear power plants and can be considered a severe energy policy error.
Unanswered Questions and the Financial Burden
In the 2024 annual report of the Ministry of Internal Security of the Presidency, approved just four days before the blackout, the risks of the electricity model were explicitly acknowledged under the heading “Energy Vulnerability”: “The transformation process of the energy sector brings new risks associated with a green generation model.”
Did the Government Take Too Many Risks? Did the government attempt to set an international record for solar and wind energy generation without properly calculating the risks of this experiment? A recent article in The Telegraph, based on EU sources, points in this direction. Given the recklessness with which this government acts, this is not unreasonable.
Further pressing questions arise: Why was insufficient diplomatic work done in Brussels to achieve the electricity interconnection with France? What is the point of producing more energy if there are export problems due to a lack of interconnections? Why are public funds allocated to so many ancillary or secondary issues, but not to financing these strategically important connections for Spain?
The Cost of Incompetence for Spain Spanish society must ask itself how much the incompetence of this government, its “eco-fanaticism,” and its loss of international influence in energy diplomacy will cost. Improving grid operations after the blackout to minimize the risk of new outages is arduous, and the costs will be passed on to customers, consumers, and taxpayers.
Strengthening the grid now implies more intensive use of gas-fired plants, which are more expensive and therefore lead to an increase in bills, especially for variable tariffs. For those with fixed-price contracts, electricity companies are already reporting tariff increases.
Nuclear Power as a Stability Anchor: The Almaraz Example
There are no valid reasons to explain the decision to shut down the reactors of the Almaraz nuclear power plant from 2027, even though according to assessments made by the World Association of Nuclear Power Plant Operators (WANO) in February of this year, it is one of the best and safest plants in the world. Why do we have a government so incapable of doing everything possible to guarantee and extend the operation of a plant that is a global benchmark for safety, with zero occupational accidents in the last seven refueling operations, and with accredited risk management and advanced digitalization techniques? Almaraz is in the best technical condition to continue operating until 2063, like the North Anna (USA) power plant, Almaraz’s twin plant, which already has an operating license until that year.
Accountability and a Change of Course Are Essential
The official explanation for the blackout is still pending, but the facts and some data that are emerging narrow down those who have piloted an energy policy oriented towards energy monocultures: in particular, the overwhelming dominance of renewable energies in the Spanish energy mix, without adapting the infrastructure or the market design itself. Nor by creating sufficient incentives that simultaneously guarantee the stability of the system, but quite the opposite: “green” ball, eco-money laundering, short-termism, electoral campaigns, and financial opportunism of a few under the guise of “renewables,” but without planning or investment in advanced technologies or regulations that force or incentivize solar and wind power generators to provide inertia to the system.
Moncloa and Ferraz in Responsibility Moncloa and Ferraz have led Spain into this situation. But it is not only something attributable to Sánchez and his government. We would have to go back to the 1980s to understand the full development of this nonsense. The Spanish left, unrivaled by its European counterparts, with the exception of Germany, has managed to make us the perfect example of the problem that the ideologization of energy represents by transferring responsibility for technical decisions to incompetent subjects. Of course, this does not mean that wind and solar energy cannot be part of the energy matrix. It is an endeavor that, in the case of Spain, is more than legitimate, but as a complement and without undermining the stability of the grid or creating incentives that could jeopardize Spain’s security and autonomy in the energy and industrial sectors.
The key to all this is whether the Spanish electricity system was prepared at that time to withstand the fluctuations that destabilized the system – obviously not – and what were the thresholds and sources that did not contribute to this and were not foreseen. Hydropower also brings inertia to the system, but Spain still lacks an effective national water policy for this purpose, which is related to the territorial issue and the dire consequences that some do not want to see for the autonomous state. Will Spanish society demand accountability and a change of course?
The Path to Nuclear Renaissance and Spain’s Blindness
Although the blackout has finally revealed the serious vulnerability of the Spanish energy system, the socialist government and the Spanish left in general remain obsessed with banning nuclear energy from the energy matrix, which precisely contributes to stabilizing the grid. The anti-nuclear wave that peaked in Europe during Angela Merkel’s heyday seems to persist in Madrid.
Global Shift Towards Nuclear Energy A nuclear renaissance is taking place in the world: countries like France, where Macron has announced investments in new reactors, and the United Kingdom, which is trying to create a more favorable regulatory environment, are betting on nuclear energy. Belgium has reversed its 2003 decision to exit nuclear power. Turkey is building its first nuclear power plants, and China is developing into a nuclear superpower, projected to have built more power plants by 2030 than the rest of the world combined throughout the 21st century. Even Germany, which has exited nuclear power, deeply regrets it, and CDU MPs are studying the feasibility of restarting six decommissioned reactors.
A Hammer Blow of Realism for the Spanish Government
The Spanish government has understood through the blackout – even if it does not openly say so – that a stable energy supply cannot depend solely on renewable energies. It has urgently increased gas purchases and flaring to avoid the international embarrassment that a second total power outage in the country would cause. Its hypocritical behavior and current desperation to acknowledge this would mean contradicting the imperative of strategic autonomy and increasing dependence on gas imports from the United States, Algeria, and Russia.
Let’s not forget, by the way, that China is the world’s leading producer of solar modules, which means that the hundreds of millions that Spain has invested in solar energy have ultimately benefited not domestic manufacturers, but their Asian rivals. It is the umpteenth contradiction of an incompetent and over-ideological ruling class with unfounded philies and phobias that prevent the design and regulation of a market that contributes to a sovereign, secure, stable, and strategic energy mix.
The energy policy of Pedro Sánchez and, in general, that proposed by the Spanish left as a whole, seems not only incomprehensible but also costly and counterproductive. Ultimately, the blackout was a hammer blow of realism. The gradual phase-out of nuclear energy, which, for example, supplied 59% of electricity in an industrial region like Catalonia last year (thanks to Ascó I and II and Vandellós II), can seriously affect the industrial base of the entire economy, which we cannot afford, unless the left truly intends to sabotage and weaken the economic sovereignty and industrial security of our country. Something that cannot be ruled out given the facts.
We cannot afford such an incompetent government for another minute. An economy like Spain’s needs a realistic, reliable, pragmatic, and secure energy and industrial policy.
