Technical webinar from INESCTEC researchers (João Peças Lopes, Francisco Fernandes, Rui Sousa) dissecting the 28 April 2025 Iberian blackout — the most severe European-grid incident in over 20 years.
Walks through the system conditions before the event: low conventional generation (only 15 CCGT units coupled, concentrated in the north; a southern CCGT unavailable after a fire), system inertia just above the ENTSO-E recommendation of H > 2.5 s, large voltage fluctuations exceeding normal operating limits between 10:00 and 12:00, oscillatory behaviour visible in PMU data, and the re-connection of long-disconnected transmission lines aggravating over-voltage in the south.
Reconstructs the cascade: rising voltage caused successive generation units to trip on over-voltage; distributed PV tripping (because the Spanish grid code did not require fault ride-through of over-voltage) and obsolete P/Q diagrams limited RES contribution to reactive-power support.
Draws lessons: mandate voltage/reactive-power control from RES (as Portugal already does), define and procure new ancillary services (fast frequency response, synchronous and synthetic inertia), and deploy grid-forming inverters in batteries with strategic siting and sizing.
Closes with INESCTEC's digital-twin replication of the event in an inter-area physics-based model and an exploration of how foundational AI models could support operators with contingency analysis and first-pass blackout-cause identification from PMU data.
