New clash between REE and power companies over access to blackout data

Tensions between the country's major power companies and the system operator, Red Eléctrica Española (REE), have continued to rise since the creation of the investigation committee to clarify the causes of the April 28 blackout.

Suspicions have been running high among all participants from the outset. It's clear to everyone that the report's final conclusion will determine who will bear the cost of compensation linked to the impact of the power outage, and the disquiet grows as the investigation progresses.

A week ago, the electricity companies asked REE for information for the accurate analysis requested by the Government.

According to La Vanguardia , the latest confrontation centers on access to system data. On the one hand, Red Eléctrica has access to events throughout the transmission system and substations, while the utilities have the most comprehensive information on events in their distribution networks, known as "downstream."

From the outset, the Government asked the latter to provide as much information as possible to facilitate identification of the problem and praised the cooperation received.

The committee referred to REE

Now, these same good intentions are being demanded from the other side, and they have been denied information on the grounds of confidentiality.

"The committee has asked us to diagnose what happened. To do that, you need information from the entire system; you can't just limit yourself to your own," says a senior executive at one of these companies.

As he explains, both the company he works for and the other companies involved in the investigation requested this complete system information from the members of the blackout analysis committee. "We were suggested to request it directly from Red Eléctrica, and that's what we did."

A week after that request, the companies have received no response from REE. "Without this information that contextualizes what we saw on our screens, a complete analysis is impossible," these sources warn.

Distributors detected extreme variations two hours before the system went down.

Concerns are growing as information is published that doesn't match what companies have seen on their screens.

On Tuesday, Aelec, the association representing the major electricity companies, published a statement demanding that the study include the extreme and widespread voltage fluctuations in the electrical grid during the morning of April 28, and even the preceding days of April 22 and 24.

These extreme fluctuations were detected on the screens of its members, both in Spain and in Europe, around 10 a.m., almost two hours before the system went down in Spain, and not just a few minutes before, as the Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, has been reporting in her various media appearances and in her appearances before Congress and the Senate.

Doubts about the electricity companies

"I have doubts that we'll ever have access to the information we need to know what really happened," the power companies say.

These feelings don't seem to be far-fetched. La Vanguardia has contacted both the Ministry led by Sara Aagesen, who declined to comment on this matter, and also REE.

The company, chaired by Beatriz Corredor, did explain that "it has requested that system agents, in compliance with the duties imposed by current regulations, provide data relating to their operations on the day of the incident. This data is essential to ensure a rigorous and complete analysis of the incident in order to determine its causes and adopt the necessary measures to prevent a recurrence."

In other words, the legislation grants Red Eléctrica the power to request information from the various actors in the system while requiring it to treat it confidentially. The same does not apply in the opposite direction.

This confidentiality is what Red Eléctrica is using to avoid sharing a complete view of its system with third parties. "Likewise, Red Eléctrica is subject to a duty of confidentiality regarding the confidential incident data it is collecting and analyzing and its transmission to other operators in the sector," they assert.

Like the distribution companies, REE assures that it "is promptly providing all the data required by the Government's Commission of Inquiry to assist the authorities in clarifying what happened."