REE cut power to major industries last night to avoid a major power outage across Spain.

Last night Spain was on the verge of a power cut. Red Eléctrica had to cut off the power supply to large industries to balance the system. According to the company on its website, at 21:14 the operator switched off a total of 609 MW, that is, the maximum capacity of the so-called active demand response (SRAD) system, to continue to guarantee supply to homes. .

According to sources consulted by the newspaper, the decision to cut off power to the industry was due to the coincidence of several events. On the one side, reduced wind production and lack of hydraulic reserves for dispatch. Added to this situation shutdown of two nuclear power plants left outside the system due to a sharp decline wholesale market prices for electricity and that the nuclear power plant Asco I (Tarragona) has notified an unscheduled shutdown.

Pedro Gonzalez, CEO of the Association of Companies with High Energy Consumption, spoke about this. economistWhat this means is that all the industrial companies that logged into SRAD last night met the REE requirements and disconnected, allowing the service to work perfectly and thus demonstrate its full usefulness.

SRAD is a balancing mechanism provided in the current regulations to ensure the necessary balance between generation and demand, i.e., to avoid blackouts. It can be applied in those specific situations where it is determined that the system does not have sufficient resources to maintain adequate levels of system reserve, as happened yesterday, and industries are expected to commit to reducing their consumption for a maximum duration of 3 hours. per day for each supplier and with a notice of at least 15 minutes.

According to Red Eléctrica, “at no time was the continuity of supply compromised and the purpose of the switch-on order, which applied for approximately three hours as established by the regulations, was to guarantee the reserve levels established in the operating procedures in response to a specific situation.” in which the resources available in the system have been reduced.”

Service details

The supply guarantee service used yesterday had the participation of marketers and consumers with a demand of at least 1 MW and is therefore not used. neither household consumers nor small businesses.

Industrialists providing this service are compensated with a marginal price of 40.82 euros per assigned MW and hour for their availability to reduce consumption during specified periods of time. According to Red Eléctrica, the weighted average price at the time of yesterday’s break was 63.29 euros/MWh.

During 2023, the SRAD was used twice, in early September, and this is the first time it is brought into service in 2024.

Red Eléctrica has been promoting demand participation in adaptation services for many years, because it is a tool that provides greater system flexibility and promotes decarbonization process. Countries such as France, Portugal and the UK also have various specific mechanisms that allow them to use these resources to meet flexibility needs. However, the electricity sector is still awaiting approval of so-called capacity payment mechanisms, which guarantee the operation of the system by having a number of power plants or storage facilities that can operate at any time and are awaiting permission from the European Union.

Risk hedging

Spain faces a serious risk of blackouts before 2030, despite high rates of renewable energy installation. Our country faces significant demand risk if the 9,000 MW of combined cycle power plants that utilities want to shut down due to lack of economic viability are closed or if the pace of storage capacity cannot be brought online.

Red Eléctrica has now carried out an analysis of the national coverage of the Spanish peninsular electricity system in which it acknowledges that it would be in a dangerous situation if these gas plants are dismantled, although it does not mention the planned closure of nuclear plants (Almaraz, Asco I and Cofrentes).

The company admits for the first time that the situation could worsen from 2027 – even with open cycles – if the pace of storage additions is not maintained as it is. On this day, nuclear dismantling begins, which is not mentioned in the report and extends the risks until 2030, that is, beyond the alert then declared by Enzoe – the European transport organization – in February 2023 and which led to the appearance of this analysis.