Some of our readers will be interested to note that the Factual Report into the ‘Grid Incident in Spain and Portugal on 28 April 2025’ is out now:
Worth copying in the preamble that’s on p2/264 of the report – because (like me) you might be wondering what a Factual Report actually is, as opposed to the alternative:
‘On 28 April 2025 at 12:33 CEST, the power systems of Spain and Portugal experienced the most severe blackout incident in the European power system in over 20 years, with major repercussions for citizens and society. To prevent similar cases from occurring in the future, a thorough technical analysis of this major incident must be performed.
This factual report describes the system conditions on 28 April 2025 and details the sequence of events that occurred on that day from 9:00 onwards in the electricity systems in Spain, Portugal, and France, as established by the Expert Panel set up in accordance with Article 15 of Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1485 of 2 August 2017 establishing a guideline on electricity transmission system operation (SO GL) and the Incident Classification Scale (ICS) methodology.
The purpose of this report is to provide a technical and objective account of the incident, based on factual evidence. It aims to support transparency, learning, and continuous improvement in system operation across Europe. While this report is based on most reliable data made available to the Expert Panel by a range of data providers, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the fairness, completeness or correctness of information and opinions contained in this document. Importantly, the report is not intended to allocate liability or responsibility to any party and may, therefore, not be interpreted in such way. It serves solely as a factual record to transparently inform stakeholders and governance bodies, and to facilitate further discussion and evaluation within the context of the final report referred to hereafter. This report has been agreed and prepared by the Expert Panel and is without prejudice to any investigation or enforcement action that may be taken by the competent authorities.
The factual report will be followed by the final report, which will include an in-depth analysis of the events of 28 April, establish the root causes of the incident, and include recommendations for improving the resilience of the European power system. ’
So we need to wait a while yet for the Final Report.
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