Samantha Mythen
THERE was no indication of human error or a cyber attack, Spanish power company Red Eléctrica reported during a press conference on Tuesday, yet there will be a legal probe into the power cut.
Head of operation servicves Eduardo Prieto told media that there were two consecutive ‘disconnection events’ on Monday.
Electrical systems were able to recover from the first event but not the second, resulting in the nationwide blackout in Spain and Portugal. He said the incidents took place in the Spain’s south west, where there are a considerable number of solar plants.
But, “nothing leads us to believe that it could have been human error,” Prieto said.
He dismissed cyberattacks as its cause, on par with what Portugese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said on Monday.
This comes as Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audencia Nacional, says it will be opening an investigation to find out whether the power outage could have been caused by a cyberattack.
Judge José Luis Calama said ‘cyberterrorism was among the possible explanations.’
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the government is still considering all possible ‘hypotheses,’ but the government has ‘not had any conclusive information to suggest’ the outage was caused by a terrorist attack.
His government has also commissioned a separate investigation, led by Spain’s Ministry of Ecological Transition.
The investigation’s goal, Sánchez said, is to strengthen Spain’s electrical system so an event like on Monday ‘cannot ever happen again.’
He said Spain had overcome the worst, and most electrical systems and internet coverage across the Iberian peninsula were back up and running.
The Portugese government has requested the EU’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators peform an independent audit of the Iberian power outage, Montenegro saying he wants ‘quick, urgent answers.’
Differing views
Prieto said it could be ‘very possible’ that the affected generation was solar but there is still not enough information to confirm this.
Meanwhile Sánchez said during an afternoon press conference on Tuesday, in his view there was no possibility that an excess of power generated by renwable sources had caused the blackout.
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