In the wake of the unprecedented Iberian blackout earlier this week, Beatriz Corredor, President of Redeia (formerly Red Eléctrica Española), offered her assessment of the event and countered political narratives attributing blame to Spain’s energy mix. Speaking to El País, Corredor emphasized that the outage was not caused by failures in the national transmission network, asserting that Redeia’s systems operated as designed and that the restoration process was both rapid and exemplary.
The incident, which struck at 12:33 PM on Monday, saw a sudden and extraordinary loss of 15,000 megawatts—roughly 60% of demand—within seconds. According to Corredor, such a sharp decline exceeds any standard operating expectations and points to a generation or distribution failure rather than an issue within the transmission system. She reiterated that Redeia’s responsibility lies with transmission, not generation or distribution.
Corredor rejected the politicization of the event, particularly suggestions that increased reliance on renewables or a lack of nuclear power led to the blackout. She argued that neither nuclear energy is inherently more secure for supply, nor are renewables less reliable. Spain’s grid, she noted, is fully equipped to manage intermittent sources like wind and solar due to built-in reserves and balancing mechanisms.
“The energy system is secure when there is a diversified mix of manageable and affordable sources,” Corredor stated. “That equilibrium is achieved through planning, not scapegoating.”
She also addressed claims that solar generation could have been at fault, clarifying that while a mass generation drop occurred in the southwestern zone, Redeia found no failure in its transmission nodes. Later disconnections in France and the UK further suggested that the strain was not isolated to Spain’s network.
“The system held. We didn’t go down. The Spanish transmission grid responded,” she insisted. “In fact, the speed of recovery was a feat.”
Portugal’s first points of failure, she pointed out, occurred within its own distribution system. Redeia maintained active communication with Spanish authorities throughout the crisis, with the company providing direct updates to Vice President Teresa Ribera and other top officials.
Corredor urged against using the crisis to undermine renewables, stressing that Spain holds a global record in renewable energy penetration and that the national grid has never been better prepared. She warned that undermining renewables due to isolated incidents could derail years of clean energy progress.