May 13, 2025
Last month’s blackout in Spain and Portugal holds important lessons as the U.S. as it fundamentally changes the way we make and deliver electricity. At the time of the grid failure, the Spanish grid was relying on wind and solar to deliver 70% of its power.
There is a fundamental difference in the way electricity is produced by wind and solar, which use electronics and microprocessors. Sources such as natural gas and nuclear drive massive spinning metal turbines that act as shock absorbers to protect grid stability.
That was one of the messages delivered by Tim Gallagher, CEO of ReliabilityFirst, the federally chartered organization that regulates the PJM grid, when he spoke earlier this year at a Pittsburgh Works Together briefing on the challenges facing the electric grid.
“We’re entering uncharted territory,” Gallagher told the group of lawmakers and business leaders. “If we don’t have those essential reliability characteristics from the generators, little problems on the power system become big problems and minor outages cascade into areawide blackouts.”
As the investigation into the cause of the Spanish blackout progresses, it appears as if the lack of spinning generation was a contributing cause of the disaster. Policymakers in Pennsylvania and other states should pay close attention to the lessons of the Spanish blackout.
Tim Gallagher’s speech at the Jan. 16 PGH Works briefing on challenges to the electric grid:
“We must carefully manage this change while balancing the ‘energy trilemma’: the delicate interplay between the reliability of electricity, its affordability for customers, and the environmental sustainability of producing and supplying it.”
Bloomberg’s Javier Blas: Electricity realism isn’t climate denialism (April 29, 2025)
Describing a confidential analysis from the International Energy Agency: “In plain English: It’s unclear how the grid will work when the weather isn't helping. That's a reality that the IEA — and renewable advocates — have long downplayed. It's refreshing that it is now acknowledged openly.”
Bloomberg’s Javier Blas: Lessons from the first blackout of the Green Era (April 30, 2025)
Quoting from the February annual report of the Spanish grid’s parent company: “The high penetration of renewable generation without the necessary technical capabilities in place to keep them operating properly in the event of a disturbance…can cause power generation outages, which could be severe.”
Pittsburgh Works Together is a business-organized labor-workforce-economic development alliance working to grow jobs and expand the industries that are the foundation of our economy, including energy, manufacturing, and construction, to provide opportunity for all residents. To learn more, please visit pghworks.com.
Ken Zapinski
412-352-4364; ken@pghworks.com
