Best Of

The Spanish report into their Grid failure is out: https://www.euractiv.com/section/eet/news/spanish-government-blames-power-plant-and-grid-operators-for-catastrophic-blackout/

No big surprises. Basically what was speculated (a cascading failure of generators dropping off the grid after an initial perturbation) has turned out to be the case.

The one interesting wrinkle is that the report claims that electricity generators who were being paid to dampen grid oscillations completely failed to do so. It says that conventional generators were up & running & being paid to step in to compensate for grid power loss but failed to do so.

It’s not clear whether there was actually enough capacity available to compensate for the solar providers going offline though - the majority of the criticism is apparently aimed at the National Grid operator for not having the means to stabilise the grid.

So it was conventional power generators who failed to do their job? That wasn't the line one poster was taking...

It’s possible that, had the conventional power plants done the job they were being paid for, the grid fluctuations might have been kept small enough that the solar generators would not have dropped off the grid en masse but I don’t know whether the report says that.

The implication of the reporting is that the fluctuations were too large, but a) I don’t know if the report has been published anywhere yet and b) I don’t speak Spanish, so wouldn’t be able to read it anyway. (I guess I could push it through AI, but that sounds like a recipe for confusion given the technical depth.)

Apparently the grid survived similar fluctuations in two previous periods in the year or two before this grid failure, with very similar generation mixes so there’s some plausibility to that idea though.

Ultimately, it seems that the National Grid hasn’t invested enough in grid stability & that needs fixing.

So I was right.

Your answer appears to be “get rid of solar and wind” which, unless you’re going full nuke (which, honestly has a certain appeal...) isn’t realistic. (I’ve read that gas generators are actually quite poor when it comes to their contribution to grid stability - similarly prone to dropping offline to protect their expensive turbines.)

You can have solar / battery installs that support grid stability instead of depend on it - but the kit has to be there which costs €. € that the National Grid has to pay for one way or another. The ultimate problem is that the Spanish NG hadn’t invested enough in grid stability & as a result exposed the grid to the possibility of these kind of cascading failures.

(Possibly the problem was that hadn’t invested enough in making sure that the companies they were paying to keep the grid stable were actually doing so...)

I haven't issued 'an answer', I alleged that the massive Spanish blackout was caused by renewable energy, for which I was roundly condemned and mocked by people who preferred the theory that it was an attack by the Goldeneye satellite.

And I was right.

You were wrong. The blackout was 'caused' by the network not managing to do its job when some providers went out. This has happened before with conventional power plants many times, and is not due to renewables per se, but to the fact that someone dropped a bollock on the network side. Almost certainly due to a lack of investment.

Yes, renewables are slightly different as RCS and others have pointed out passim, but not so different that a well-designed network with them in should fail in this manner.

So you were wrong. As you were with your hilariously stupid idea to go back to coal power generation.

But there will be lessons here that I hope that the government and national grid are looking at. But the lesson is not to go back to coal power...

I think the report suggests there was plenty of infrastructure, just that it wasn't being utilised properly.

https://x.com/trump_repost/status/1935003879982387632

We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn't compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured "stuff." Nobody does it better than the good ol' USA.

https://x.com/trump_repost/status/1935009981088280977

We know exactly where the so-called "Supreme Leader" is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there - We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don't want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

https://x.com/trump_repost/status/1935010520979108104

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!

"We"????

William and the Don are pretty tight.

@KianpourWorld

I was just told that Iranians have been informed the internet will be cut off from tonight. Unless they have Starlink, they won’t have connection.

https://x.com/KianpourWorld/status/1935000795323170989

Lol, the counter revolution is here

Starlink has been available in Iran, since it was turned on at the request of the Biden administration. Which was seen as rather interesting, since this went against ITU rules, which require consent from the countries government.

There’s gonna be a coup before long isn’t there.

The Iranians obviously believe that there are realtime Israeli assets transmitting information.

One assumes the Israelis have a contingency to Iranian ISPs being disabled. Seems a bit desperate

It’s more to do with cutting off non-Iranian news sources.

Dictatorial regimes *can’t* appear weak. If the Israeli’s have complete air superiority, then video of their UAVs flying slow circuits in Iranian airspace are an existential threat to the regime.

“… make me look ridiculous. And a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous.”

Decriminalising abortion up to birth ought to be enough for any of them.
Kendall, for she is disgusting (and a massive rebellion looms)

There must be quite a few parents of extremely young infants who would wish they could turn the clock back a few days. Why not, what's the difference?

Personally id be moving the latest time to abort a long way towards conception from 24 weeks

Decriminalising full term abortions is grotesque, any MP backing it isn’t fit for office. Agreed that 24 weeks feels too late these days too. Ideally you’d want universal early dna screening and bringing the date back, not moving it forwards (or eliminating it).

Is there some massive clamour amongst the public to hugely liberalise abortion? If so I must have missed it. Why on earth are Labour doing this, "decriminalising" full term abortions by doctors is a shocking change. Was it in the manifesto?

This is a government of cranks, traitors and incompetents, all pushing their own crazy theories

One of the few blessings of being British rather than a Yankee is that we don't have their horrible abortion arguments. This risks importing that toxic debate

Why??

Because a number of women were being prosecuted for procuring abortions for themselves during the pandemic & many female MPs were surprised to discover that abortion is still illegal in the UK & that their right to access abortion at all rested on the figleaf of medical need introduced by the Abortion Act 1967.

The expansion of the right to abortion to full-term abortions is separate to this, but it’s unsurprising that some amongst those that believe that access to abortion is a right take an expansive view of that right & are pushing for that.