Yurii Korolchuk: reason for collapse of energy sector in Spain and Portugal was shutdown of solar power plants
Ukraine is not Spain
The Spaniards, together with the European Commission, are considering whether to tell the truth about the accident in the power system or expand the version about a "natural anomaly". The investigation is ongoing. But the Spanish network operator is very cautiously stating that the cause was the collapse, the shutdown of solar power plants, which led to the collapse of the entire power system.
In private assessments from representatives of both operators and EU traders, one opinion is heard: the failure of the idea of combining the operation of traditional (nuclear power plants, thermal power plants) and renewable energy sources (solar power plants, wind power plants). And the mega-super-idea about energy storage systems (energy storage) did not save Spain and its neighbors. "It died like that".
Simply put: Spain did not have enough reserve gas capacity to replace solar power plants. And yet – in Spain, the process of dispatching the power system turned out to be weak and disorganized. But this is a massive internal problem of almost all EU countries. Indeed, in Ukraine the situation is better with this. But the merit of this is far from the human factor.
Of course, you can come up with terrorist attacks, cyberattacks, lightning strikes, anomalies and so on. But the power system will not become more reliable from this. Solar power plants and wind power plants will shake any power system. Even if you build 100% reserve traditional capacities (gas-fired thermal power plants).
An exception may be some large countries (like China, but China is one of a kind), where a significant amount of electricity from solar power plants and wind power plants will be sent not to the socio-economic power system (population, industry), but to special purposes. Either for storage in storage systems, or large-scale data centers, or for specialized production (at least hydrogen in the future).
In short, the idea of full use of solar power plants and wind power plants and other "alternatives" in the operation of the energy system has not yet worked. And hence such emergencies as in Spain. One can even say that such emergencies will be frequent or will be repeated with some periodicity if countries do not develop more and more gas generation as the maximum permissible maneuverable one.
And for now, you will limit RES producers, or you will always live in standby mode for an emergency.
And of course, the main conclusion is that in the end the consumer will always and constantly pay for everything. Because “funny songs” about negative prices for electricity will not appear in the bills of household consumers of the EU. On the contrary, tariffs and prices for such consumers are growing every year. And the reason for this is simple: balancing and covering failures in the operation of solar power plants and wind power plants is very expensive.
What are the conclusions for Ukraine? Well, none. In Ukraine, supporters of solar power plants are quietly silent, guided by the principle: give - take, hit - run away. And in many assessments there is no critical view of the role and possibilities of renewable energy in the energy system of Ukraine. A kind of illusion of deception. As if the fate of Spain will bypass us. The illusion is that for Ukraine, blackouts only exist in a state of war.
Solar power plants have already created a problem on the energy market. The problem of a shortage of maneuverable capacities (thermal power plants and CHPPs). The problem of a shortage of electricity in the winter (not in a warm winter). The problem of balancing mass electricity production at solar power plants in the summer. Now the latter problem is being solved by either export or restriction, but the day will come when even this will not help.