Power stability could need USD tns investments: Europe’s outdated electricity grid will require investing USD tns to avoid large-scale blackouts and keep pace with rising renewable energy output and electricity demand, Reuters reported on Monday. The warning comes after a sudden collapse in Spain’s solar power output last week appeared to have triggered a major blackout across Spain and Portugal, raising questions about grid stability as more clean energy comes online.

No grid is immune, Cardiff University’s School of Engineering head Prof. Jianzhong Wu told the Guardian last Friday, noting that most networks are old and not designed to be entirely blackout-proof — and doing so would require investments far beyond what is economically viable.

Power collapses may be caused due to grid ‘glitches,’ whether a mechanical error in a power line, an overloaded substation, or a software error, the Guardian reported. Renewables make the job harder because they don’t provide “inertia,” the stabilizing force created by spinning turbines in fossil fuel plants that maintain grid frequency at 50Hz. Without it, a sudden loss in power can cause the frequency to swing and trigger protective shutdowns across the grid.

SOUND SMART- The electricity grid is a network of physical infrastructure — power plants, transmission lines, substations, distribution cables, transformers, and control centers — that move electricity from source to user. These assets age and degrade over time and newly built interconnections between countries don’t replace the internal aging grid.

There is a clear investment gap: Global investments in new solar capacity edged USD 500 bn last year, and only USD 400 bn was directed toward grid upgrades, threatening system stability as electricity demand rises.

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