Post · bonfire.cafe

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net · 8 months ago

And before you shout "Sabotage! HackerTerrorCyberCyber!", here some links to previous collapses of the grid:

2006: Badly communicated switchover of high voltage lines in Germany causes Europe wide outage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_European_blackout

2024: Outages in Albania (OST), Bosnia and Herzegovina (NOSBiH), Montenegro (CGES), and Croatia (HOPS) started by short circuit on the 400 kV Podgorica 2 – Ribarevine line, caused by vegetation proximity https://eepublicdownloads.blob.core.windows.net/public-cdn-container/clean-documents/Publications/2024/entso-e_incident_report_240621_250225_02.pdf

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2006 European blackout - Wikipedia

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net replied · 8 months ago

"senior director at Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica saying it could take “between six and ten” hours to restore energy across the country, as he calls it an unprecedented incident.

Eduardo Prieto, director of operations at Red Eléctrica, declined to comment on the causes of the outage."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/apr/28/ukraine-russia-zelenskyy-putin-trump-crimea-germany-europe-news-live-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-680f7c568f08090b5dd03f26#block-680f7c568f08090b5dd03f26

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Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net replied · 8 months ago

Power in Spain is being gradually restored[1]. Speculations about this outage being the result of a cyberattack are exactly that: speculations. The fire in France that caused an outage on a 400kV power line seems to be unrelated. But again, we will have to wait for a postmortem to emerge and that will likely take at least a few days.

[1] https://www.ree.es/es/sala-de-prensa/actualidad/nota-de-prensa/2025/04/proceso-de-recuperacion-de-la-tension-en-el-sistema-electrico-peninsular

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Red Eléctrica

Actuación de Red Eléctrica ante el incidente del 28 de abril

Inmediatamente después de producirse el incidente el pasado 28 de abril, Red Eléctrica activó el protocolo de actuación y se mantuvo en contacto permanente con el Gobierno y organismos competentes. También informó y se coordinó con sus homólogos europeos. De esta forma, Red Eléctrica y los sujetos del sistema trabajaron para reponer el suministro eléctrico en todo el territorio peninsular lo antes posible.

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net replied · 8 months ago

What *seems* to have happened: The Holy Grid Frequency started to oscillate out of spec, leading to a de-coupling of the Iberian part from the European grid which in turn caused ripple effects that led to a big outage. Why the frequency ran away is as of yet unknown, a theory about atmospheric conditions goes around but is not supported by many experts in the field, AFAICS. #HackerTerrorCyberCyber is being ruled out as of now.

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Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net replied · 8 months ago

Would be interesting to know how many households and companies survived due to solar and batteries. This outage once again shows, IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), how decentralising The Grid (which is happening) can create a buffer effect to soften the impact of such big outages.

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Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net replied · 8 months ago

Also, also. Losing such a big chunk of the European grid in a matter of minutes did NOT lead to ripple effects east of France, it seems. Which shows how resilient the grid actually is. This failed in 2006 (see the link in comment #4 of this thread), so it seems lessons have been learned. Which is A Damn Good Thing. At least here in Germany we saw no outages at all, AFAICS. #ThanksEU!

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