Addressing the Iberian Blackout: A Wake Up Call

What Happened in Spain and Portugal?

On April 28, 2025, The Iberian Peninsula consisting of a major part of Spain and Portugal experienced the worst electricity disruption in recent regional history. It is estimated that about 60% of Spain's electricity demand was lost and the major cities like Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon among several others launched into the Darkness.

The Black Out began in the early afternoon but extended into the evening creating a case across several essential services. The metro system was completely halted with the air traffic faced delays due to non availability of the electricity. Along with these the emergency facilities like hospitals and clinics have to completely rely on the generators to provide essential electricity for most crucial tasks.

Among Spain and Portugal, the Portugal grid recovers faster than the other but the country services still get seriously affected. The crisis has raised serious concerns over the grid efficiency and also on the preparedness of the concerned departments of the country.

The blackout had indicated that both countries needed a serious upgrade of their current electricity distribution system and machinery involved in their national grid. It has also indicated that both countries need to rethink their current strategy of managing the national grid and all other associated tasks.

Root Causes of the Outage

We have concluded that there were four main root causes that led to the power outage and also affected the recovery process of this power outage.

Technical Failures in the Transmission Grid

As explained by Portugal's electricity provider, Redes Energeticas Nacionais (REN), there was some sudden change in the environmental factors that they called “rare atmospheric phenomena” that had produced a technical fault in the high voltage transmission system of Portugal. This triggered a chain reaction that affected several key substations leading to a rapid and widespread drop in the voltage and frequency.

Grid Instability from Renewable Integration

Both Spain and Portugal are relying on renewable energy resources like solar and wind. By nature both of these renewable resources produce a very wide fluctuating output and with a lack of sufficient grid balance mechanism they make the system very vulnerable.

At the time of blackout this grid was operating on 85% wind power and this without proper storage mechanism and electricity regulation created a large fluctuation in supply of the electricity that contributed a lot in producing faults in high voltage transmission networks.

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Reactive Power and Voltage Control Deficiencies

Once there was a problem in a high voltage transmission network, the attached system did not have the reactive power support and ability to control voltage fluctuation and constrain the problem. Without any proper voltage regulation system all the equipment attached with the faulty transmission network became disconnected. This increases the problem from one transmission system to the national level.

Inadequate Transformer Infrastructure

Once the problem starts and the number of systems are down, the remaining several Electrical Transformer were overloaded during the peak demand and without any backup system to support these Transformer, they also start getting tripped due to overloading and overheating. This relation was a gap in the country's Transformer capacity and reliability. The country's efficient electricity infrastructure contributes to the overheating tripping and delay in recovery from the power outage.

Keep reading: Transforming Global Energy Infrastructure with Large Transformers

How Such Power Outages Can Be Prevented

Power outages like these can be prevented or at least minimised to reduce the outage time and effective area. There are a number of things that need to be done to prevent anything similar happening in the near future.

Modernize the Grid with Smart Systems

As all Electrical Transformer and electricity grid stations are working continuously and can face small problems in real time, a smart grid system is needed that allows real time monitoring and controlling of the great system. It is also required to have a system in which an automated response can be generated and predictive for detection can be done. This can significantly increase the grid reliability and reduce chances of any fall that can produce a large scale power outage.

Strengthen Transformer Infrastructure

As our electricity demand will continue to increase, it is in best interest to have a high voltage and energy efficient transformer in place to reduce the chances of any such power outage in future. High voltage transformers have much better abilities to control and resist the power fluctuation.

Deploy Fast Response Equipment

Having an Inventory of Electrical Transformer and all other related equipment that can be fastly deployed in result of any such power outage will significantly reduce the power outage time. The ability to quickly deploy such equipment also helps manage electrical voltage fluctuation in case of any national emergency.

Enhance Redundancy and Decentralized Storage

In order to limit the dependence on the national grid in case of any such power outages it is in best interest to have a local energy storage system that can provide a buffer against sudden fluctuation of voltage. This type of local storage is especially helpful in renewable energy outputs like solar and wind energy power plants.

Flexible Transformers for Renewable Integration

As each and every country is adopting renewable energy resources like solar and wind they produce fluctuating output. So the new age Electrical Transformer must be designed and developed to adopt rapid shifts in power input from those renewable energy resources. This is highly important to give them intermittent supply from these renewable energy resources.

Try for free: Daelim Transformers Solution For Renewable Power Plant

Daelim Transformer: A Competitive Solution

As Spain and Portugal are working to rebuild and reinforce their Electricity Distribution infrastructure, the Daelim offer a very robust, efficient, reliable and future ready solution in terms of their high quality transformers.

Expert in Delivering Custom Solutions

Daelim is expert in delivering high quality and custom made electrical power transformers to the national grid stations all around the globe, especially in the EU. We can deliver an electrical power transformer with the maximum voltage capacity of 345 kV and with a power rating of 300 MVA.

Fast Delivery Capabilities

Daelim leads the EU market in transformer delivery speed as it can supply any custom made power transformer in just 5 to 7 months. This is highly important because the fast turnaround time enables countries and companies to quickly deploy the crucial upgrade and emergency recovery of the grid system. Our excellent management in production technology ensures we have ready to ship inventory in place and have optimized logistics to ensure rapid delivery to affected regions.

High Quality, Certified Products

At Daelim, we design and develop electrical power Transformers that can comply with any international and national standard like IEC, ANSI, and CE. Each of our Electrical Transformer is known for its long operational life, very high efficiency and very low power losses during its useful life. Depending on the client needs we also design special temperature resistance Electrical Transformer to minimise the efficiency losses during extreme summer heat. This is an increasing concern in Electrical Transformer design amid climate change.

Customized Solutions for Renewable Integration

Renewable energy will be the thing of the future so almost each region of the globe and especially the EU is adopting renewable energy on a large scale. As this energy resource produces a fluctuating output so an especially designed Electrical Transformer is needed to facilitate the Electricity Distribution. Daelim is specialised in designing and developing custom Transformers that can facilitate the reliable distribution of electricity from renewable energy resources. Our transformers for renewable integration are also equipped with proper instruments to support energy storage systems and regulate dynamic load change. Stabilize grids against wind/solar fluctuations (e.g., -85% wind output) and low storage capacity (2.1 GWh).

Proven International Experience

Daelim is not new in this business and with over decades of experience under our belt we have successfully delivered and installed Transformer for critical infrastructure projects all around the globe including the United States of America, Europe and Australia. We have extensive experience in energy storage application, Transformers for substations, and custom build equipment for renewable heavy environments ensuring reliability and safety of the system.

Conclusion

The most recent power outages in Spain and Portugal show that the old national grid infrastructure is not capable of meeting the demands of the future. This creates a demand for rapid improvement in the existing infrastructure and needs a supplier change that offers quality Electrical Transformer in the shortest time. Daelim being its global leader in designing and delivering high quality power transformers that can satisfy all types of international and national standard is the best option available for all national grid stations around the globe.

Daelim Transformer

Daelim Transformer is a leading brand in manufacturing and supplying Electrical Transformer all around the globe. We design and develop electrical Transformers of all types, sizes, voltage rating and power capacity. Each of our Electrical Transformers can satisfy all national and international standards like that of IEC, ANSI, and CE.

If you have any questions about Transformers then contact us and we will talk you through the process.