Europe is talking about the “Green transition”. This Monday (April 28th), it became clear that there might not be a “Green transition”, but only a “1/2 Green transition”. As soon as the share of renewable sources reaches 50% of generation, the network begins to have serious problems with frequency and voltage regulation.

I believe that politicians as well as followers of HVDC technologies, wind farms, solar panels, and batteries have their own opinions on this issue, such as “unusual atmospheric phenomenon” or “hackers.” Well, let’s not judge them for such an opinion, because no one wants to cut the branch they’re sitting on. After all, they have a family to feed.

Personally, I have questions not at all about HVDC or renewables, but about completely different things which I have seen and consider dangerous.

1️⃣Madrid airport was de-energized. This is unacceptable (the plane is not a train, it cannot stop in the air and wait). For what reason there were no diesel generators, I don’t know. But I know a specific IKEA’s store, which operated on diesel for 2 years in the 2000s because the external power supply network was not ready. If IKEA did it for 2 years, then why Madrid couldn’t do it for just 8 hours?

2️⃣The mobile signal was lost in less than 1 hour. That is, it has not turned from 5g (internet) to 2g-3g (calls, SMS), but has completely disappeared. As a result, there was impossible to call the police, a doctor, or a taxi. It was impossible to pick up children from school and calm elderly relatives. I have experienced many outages in different countries of the world, but the mobile connection did not disappear anywhere, it lasted for hours without problems! If I have to choose between “green energy” and “the opportunity to call children”, then the latter is definately better.

3️⃣There are no instructions in any elevator on how to act if you get stuck there. There is no number to call (the mobile network was running for 1 hour).

4️⃣There are no instructions in any parking lot on how to open the gate manually (important in case of power outage or fire).

I believe that 1️⃣-2️⃣-3️⃣-4️⃣ needs to be solved, and without delay. Because the reasons why the blackout happened will remain with us for many years to come, threatening new blackouts.

By the way, now I have additional motivation:
✅ to keep several bottles of drinking water at home;
✅ to buy a camping gas burner in Decathlon;
✅ not to buy an electric car.

Happy May 1st to all. Although it’s International Workers’ Day, it’s a day off. That’s how it is in this world.