The power outage in Argentina and Uruguay, is very mysterious. Also outside of South America, the incident creates uncertainty. In Europe, energy supply is relatively stable – for the time being.
With a cell phone flashlight through the supermarket: Not only the shops remained in Argentina on Sunday dark
A good two weeks it could take, according to data from Argentina’s energy Secretary Gustavo Lopetegui, until the cause for the identified failure of the energy supply in Argentina and Uruguay. A collapse of the electricity network had led on Sunday morning to the Blackout. Almost 50 million people were affected – and in the middle of the Winter. Rail transport came to a Standstill, traffic lights were, also, the water supply was affected. Many hospitals and airports in Argentina could receive your operation in many cases, thanks to generators to maintain. Also in Parts of Paraguay, Brazil and Chile, it came in media reports of failures of the power supply.
While in Argentina and Uruguay, the lights in most of the house on Sunday evening went on, the enlightenment, apparently as the protracted. While in Argentina, its infrastructure is ailing, to ausfälllen always temporary Power, a country-wide Blackout, there was never.
For Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, the power failure came at a worse time
The Argentine energy provider Edesur attributed the incident to a Problem on a transmission line between two power stations on the coast. “This is a protection mechanism for the power plants was enabled, which then went out of operation and the power outage caused.”
A shutdown of power plants due to voltage fluctuations is usually limited locally, said energy Secretary of state Lopetegui. “The question is: Why did the System that is designed to isolate only the affected section, exactly?”. A hacker attack Lopetegui is not the castle, but this is unlikely. Argentine media reported that a storm in the North of the country have affected the power plants.
Verbundsytem with archilles heel?
It can come in a number of countries at the same time to a collapse of the energy supply, may be related to the functioning of interconnected systems: Argentina and Uruguay, a power grid, the proceeds from the jointly operated dam at Salto Grande share. Also Paraguay shares with Argentina a power plant. In General, such composite systems ensure that power plant outages are compensated by other power plants, and the supply can also be across borders is ensured.
Street scene in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires during the power failure
That this work was “a question of investment in the infrastructure,” says Veit Hagenmeyer, a Professor of energy Informatics at the Karlsruhe Institute of technology. With enough lines, power plants and spare-capacity case, as in Argentina and Uruguay to prevent it. Why it came out in the countries of the Mega-Blackout, but he could only speculate: For cases in which important lines are damaged, there is in the network of Argentina, in terms of area, one of the largest countries in the world, and Uruguay may be “too little meshing. And because this is also a very large geographical extent, the cost all the money.” This will bring an “archilles heel” for the composite network. In addition, such systems should be well maintained to grab in an emergency. That this is not done, the frequent power outages in the country suspect.
“As with everything in life, there is a residual risk”
A giant Blackout in the whole of Europe, where a state engages in cross-bonded system, holds Hagenmeyer, at least in the near future is unlikely. “If we can get a European storm weather, which destroyed all of the transmission networks, then it is in Europe, too, dark, clear. But that is not what occurred in the last 75 years.” Of course, the European network of electric technically not be “100 percent stable. As with everything in life, there is a residual risk”.
Thus, several European countries and even in Morocco, the power went out in November 2006. Also, on 10. January of this year, escaped to Europe, perhaps, just a large power outage, as the network frequency in Europe fell far suddenly at a critical value. “Then France has dropped very fast load [shut down of the power load in the power grid, Anm. d. Red.]. Of course, there are also in Germany, load-shedding reserves, for example, in the chemical industry. And then the frequency came back so quickly again,” says Hagen Meyer – for him, a proof for the stability of the interconnected system.
Also a country does not expect a Blackout in Germany, according to the experts, for the time being. The power supply was “in a European comparison, at a very high level,” – quoted by the German press Agency, a spokesman for the Federal network Agency. “Germany has one of the safest electricity networks in the world,” said accordingly, a spokeswoman for the German transmission grid operator Tennet.
The energy transition requires new solutions
A challenge for collaborative networks, the transition to renewable energies presents, however. “Because they have no fossil-fuel power plants, and therefore are not as easily controllable, and in particular, no rotating masses in terms of generators, the inertia of the System as a Whole more restless,” said energy security expert Hagen Meyer.
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Alarm mood was not warranted. But: “what the world looks Like, if the thermal power plants are out, the nuclear power plants are, of course, that is a different story. You need to really thoughts.” The energy Informatics and is optimistic that solutions would be found – not only by advances in research. I can’t imagine “that we are going to operate in Europe a network, the drives are always at the limit of stability along. The policy has to ensure that power outages are not a large area of the ceiling over several days or weeks,” explains Hagen Meyer.
Also in Argentina, the policy could be taken after the Blackout in the duty. “With [President Mauricio] Macri, we are only Venezuela,” wrote one Twitter user, referring to the power outages in the South American country in crisis in the past few months. 18. October turns Macri for re-election.