The CEO of Redeia, Roberto García Merino, reiterated in the Senate on Tuesday that “Red Eléctrica did not fail on April 28”, the day of the massive blackout in the Iberian Peninsula, and warned that there were “irregular behaviors of some plants that someone will have to explain”. This is what García Merino expressed himself in the commission of inquiry of the Upper House, where he underlined that that morning there had been 12 anomalous elements that had caused the blackout.
Likewise, he underlined that the initial element was the anomalous oscillation caused by a photovoltaic system in Extremadura, a claim that led Iberdrola to file a lawsuit in court against the president of Redeia, Beatriz Corredor, who defended the same thesis in the Senate.
On the other hand, and as part of the commission of inquiry that analyzes what happened in the Upper House, he defended that the programming of Red Eléctrica on the 28th was correct, that the activity of the system manager is “merely technical”, that it is regulated and that it acts independently of the Government.
It was therefore concluded that the blackout resulted from the anomalous oscillation of the Extremadura power station, to which were added numerous irregular disconnections from other power plants and failures in the voltage control of conventional systems required to do so.
“If the rules are not respected, security of supply is at stake,” said García Merino, who argues that this is demonstrated in the reports of Red Eléctrica itself, the committee appointed by the Government and the European panel of Entso-E network operators.
“Red Eléctrica has a function, which is to guarantee the electricity supply of a system of which many agents are part, of which each must do their part. Red Eléctrica acted with total diligence on April 28 and found itself in a situation, and these are elements that we cannot explain, but that the other agents will have to explain, in which a completely anomalous oscillation occurs in the system and in which irregular disconnection of generation groups occurs,” he explained.
In this regard, he estimated that “a fact is a fact and is not disputed,” and stressed that when a system trips and disconnects at 418 kilovolts (kV), when it must withstand at least up to 435 kilovolts, “this is a violation of the regulations.” “The reports show that there have been non-compliances, and that is something that obviously someone will have to look into,” he said.
The manager of Redeia – parent company of Red Eléctrica de España – stressed that the accident of April 28, as indicated by both the operator of the Spanish electricity system and the European expert group of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in their reports, was “an unpredictable and unprecedented event”, which is not “comparable on a global level”, and which was produced by a total of 12 elements (N-12) “which did not act as they would have due”. “It was a multifunctional, unpredictable event, very difficult to manage, given that it began with a first completely anomalous oscillation of the system, which weakened the tools available to the system operator to guarantee supply. Subsequently, a series of irregular disconnections occurred, as can be seen from the system manager’s report of 18 June, to which we must add a failure to respect the voltage control capacity of some groups, which led to a problem,” he indicated.
The words of the general director of Redeia come after the director of operations of the system, Concepción Sánchez, has already reported on the progress of the company. Both the two directors and the president of Red Eléctrica, Beatriz Corredor, avoid any responsibility of the company in the historic accident.
With this hypothesis, Redeia did not make any provisions in its accounts, believing that it would not have to face any liabilities.
To defend his position, García Merino reiterated on several occasions that there are up to four independent reports that point against the electricity companies. As explained, the group of European experts, the International Energy Agency, the report of the system manager himself and the expert report prepared by the government indicate that the problem was not of programming, as the electricity companies accuse, but resulted from an anomalous oscillation in Extremadura, from the improper disconnection of several generation plants and from the lack of voltage control to which some traditional plants owned by the electricity companies are enabled.
In this sense, García Merino defended that the strengthened operation that Red Eléctrica has been applying since April 28, and which represents an additional cost on the bill, is due to the fact that until the historic accident they were not aware of the lack of regulation of some plants. Regarding previous problems, the CEO of Redeia warns that they have already asked the CNMC for measures since 2020, although he did not want to attribute responsibility beyond the manufacturers. He also explained that a higher level of interconnection would have helped improve the stability of the system, but ruled out that it would have prevented the disconnection of the entire peninsula.
In the responsibility section, García Merino explained that his role is not to make accusations, since an investigation by the group of European experts is still ongoing, which is expected to be announced in early 2026, and it will be the National Commission for Market and Competition (CNMC) that will have the power to impose sanctions.
