Millions are sans electric all over the Iberian peninsula due to "Issue with the European electric grid." Power has been out for a few hours now. Rails travel halted; Madrid airport closed, roads in gridlock in the big cities.

Depending upon how long this lasts, it may be a good lesson on being so reliable on computers and the electricity that powers them.

Seems to me that a developed country could be sent back to stone ages in a matter of days simply by going after their power. And you know every terrorist group and unfriendly country has this in mind.

I hope they have their HAM licenses up to date.

I can't seem to find anything that says how many people are without power.

BBC is reporting:

'Extreme temperature variations in Spain' contributed to outage - Portuguese grid officials
published at 10:10
10:10
We have a bit more for you now from the Portuguese energy company REN (Rede Eletrica Nacional).

It says that "due to extreme temperature variations in the interior or Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 KV), a phenomenon known as 'induced atmospheric vibration'".

As we said in our last post, Spain is yet to respond to these claims.

Link

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Depending upon how long this lasts, it may be a good lesson on being so reliable on computers and the electricity that powers them.

Seems to me that a developed country could be sent back to stone ages in a matter of days simply by going after their power. And you know every terrorist group and unfriendly country has this in mind.

Read Larry Bond's The Enemy Within.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Depending upon how long this lasts, it may be a good lesson on being so reliable on computers and the electricity that powers them.

Seems to me that a developed country could be sent back to stone ages in a matter of days simply by going after their power. And you know every terrorist group and unfriendly country has this in mind.

Worldwide the power grids are extremely vulnerable to solar storms because of Earth's rapidly weakening magnetic field. Solar eruptions of only modest intensity have been causing significant impacts already, compared to the same solar activity even just 20 years ago. Minor events can trip circuit breakers which can cascade blackouts, but bigger events can damage critical components such as transformers.

There are many studies showing that the weakening and shifting magnetic field is very involved in climate change.

A family friend is in the grid infrastructure industry. He tells me that the grid could be hardened at a low cost, but it would take years. And, the lead time today for new transformers is years, so if the grid gets fried then we are looking at an extended problem.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
Read Larry Bond's The Enemy Within.

Or One Second After.

It wouldn't take days.

So a good idea would be to add solar panels and battery walls to your home is a good investment to protect you against the power outage, this way your food is protected (freezer, fridge) lights, and heat/ac...

But, even if you have power, the grid being down means you still have zero ability to reach out because everything in your grid is down, meaning any internet hosts would be down, copper land lines might still work.

Adding Starlink to connect to the world is probably a good idea in order to get any news
source you can,

A streaming account for online tv news access

Those hand held radios for personal comms, or a ham radio.

This is John Connor. If you're listening to this, you are the resistance.

quote:

A streaming account for online tv news access

Without Starlink, how long do you think you'd have broadband?

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

But, even if you have power, the grid being down means you still have zero ability to reach out because everything in your grid is down, meaning any internet hosts would be down, copper land lines might still work.

That ship sailed decades ago. Those so-called "copper land lines" might still extend to a residence, but at the telco end points they have long been replaced by fiber and microwave circuits that are purely digital in nature. Yes, some traditional telcos still have a few huge battery-backed facilities, but I would not expect anyone to have dial tone in a massive power outage situation.

quote:

Originally posted by stoic-one:

quote:

A streaming account for online tv news access

Without Starlink, how long do you think you'd have broadband?

Hence the suggestion to have Starlink...
but you'd need to have it in advance...

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Adding Starlink to connect to the world is probably a good idea in order to get any news
source you can,

A streaming account for online tv news access

Probably correct about the old POTS lines, we'll need Para's two way radio thread.

Link to Emergency two-way radios for what may lie ahead Thread

IF you don't have a whole house solar system, you can get inexpensive off grid panels so you can keep some comm units charged..

April 16, 2025: Spain Runs 100% on Renewable Power. April 28: Blackouts.
David Blackmon
Apr 28, 2025
I really don’t want to make light of the terrible situation with the power grid in Spain and Portugal today, but everyone simply MUST know about this report by PV Magazine dated April 22":

Image
On April 16, Spain achieved 100% renewable generation on its power grid. Five days later, on April 21, solar set a new record, providing 78.6% of all generation on the grid.

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Seven days after that, Spain’s grid collapsed as it was generating 78% from combined wind and solar, and just a little over 3% with spinning baseload generation powered by natural gas.

As I mentioned in my previous update, grid managers are trying to blame the blackout on what they’re calling “rare atmospheric phenomenon.”

Power grid expert Kathryn Porter speculated the blackouts could be the result of what she calls “low inertia” on the grid:


Low inertia is a condition that forms when a grid has too much electricity generated by non-rotational generators. In Spain, that would equate to too much solar generation.

At the time the blackouts happened, 61% of generation on Spain’s grid was being provided by solar.

How much you want to bet that we will find out in the coming days that that “rare phenomenon” boils down to some combination of “the wind stopped blowing” and “it got cloudy”?

https://blackmon.substack.com/...rue&utm_medium=email

Jackasses

Rare atmospheric phenomena......horse shit.

Poor redundancy, maintenance and security combined with the OVER RELIANCE of 'renewable energy sources' are the cause. An entire country's grid doesn't collapse because clouds moved in and the wind stopped blowing. Spain is a big country, parts of it are wind swept and overall it gets a LOT of sun, lots of blue-bird days for those skiers, they should have a number of solar and wind farms but the OVER reliance doesn't do anybody any good.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
Rare atmospheric phenomena......

Yes, the sky became dark.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
Rare atmospheric phenomena......

Yes, the sky became dark.

Pretty good example why going all electric is a poor idea.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Pretty good example why going all electric is a poor idea.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Pretty good example why going all electric is a poor idea.

So, you look at incidents like this and can’t figure out why having everything electric is a bad idea? Electric cars dont go real far without electricity.

That and this shows the system is too fragile for much additional load.

I can tell you around here the school can't operate without electricity.

Computers control everything within the buildings and they no longer use text books, it's all done on laptops. We had a major district take about a week off this last year due to some ransomware.