Also released on the day, but belatedly noting here, was a 18-page report by REE (Red Eléctrica, the sole transmission system operator (TSO) for the Spanish electricity system) published on the “Blackout in Spanish Peninsula Electrical System on 28th of April 2025” .
Paul was one of the founders of Global-Roam in February 2000. He is currently the CEO of the company and the principal author of WattClarity. Writing for WattClarity has become a natural extension of his work in understanding the electricity market, enabling him to lead the team in developing better software for clients.
Before co-founding the company, Paul worked as a Mechanical Engineer for the Queensland Electricity Commission in the early 1990s. He also gained international experience in Japan, the United States, Canada, the UK, and Argentina as part of his ES Cornwall Memorial Scholarship.
Last Thursday (31st Aug 2023) the AEMO published the ESOO 2023, including forecasts of some possibility of unserved energy in Victoria and South Australia this coming summer 2023-24 (above the Interim Reliability Measure). Guest author Allan O’Neil takes a look.
Over the week that has just passed we kept noticing production from wind farms across the NEM was fairly muted – so we’ve had a look at what it meant, in aggregate daily capacity factors. This is something we’re exploring much deeper in Generator Insights 2021…
It seems all renewables were operating in constant power factor mode (general practice as per FERC and ENTSO-E in US and Europe is to control to unity power factor according one AI site) They did not participate in dynamic voltage control mode and hence did not do much to help with the overvoltages. The full non confidential Spanish gov report recommends that market rules be changed to allow renewables to be remunerated for taking part in dynamic voltage control. One wonders if the blackout would have been avoided if the renewables had been in this mode.
It seems all renewables were operating in constant power factor mode (general practice as per FERC and ENTSO-E in US and Europe is to control to unity power factor according one AI site) They did not participate in dynamic voltage control mode and hence did not do much to help with the overvoltages. The full non confidential Spanish gov report recommends that market rules be changed to allow renewables to be remunerated for taking part in dynamic voltage control. One wonders if the blackout would have been avoided if the renewables had been in this mode.