Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Big Green's Inertia Problem
To understand what happened in Spain, I called a friend of mine. He is an electrical engineer who has worked all over the world selling hardware that detects problems on the electric grid and helps improve grid reliability. He has worked in the field for decades. Given the early stage of the investigation, he was reluctant to be too definitive. Still, he said it is “highly likely” that Spain’s heavy reliance on solar and wind contributed to the blackout. “What we are seeing across all power systems is that they are more brittle. They don’t have enough inertia. They have far less spinning reserve and margin for error. Earlier in my career, it was common to have a 15% minimum spinning reserve.” (Emphasis added.)
By spinning reserve, he referred to the backup power plants operating in case they are needed. Today, he said, electric grids are “running on thin margins with very little spinning reserve.”
Via John Hinderaker.
