European blackout of November 2006: important lessons to be drawn

The final report on the incident of 4 November 2006, released this week by the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE), demonstrates that common action at European level is urgent. Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs stated, “Europe should draw lessons from this blackout that left millions of Europeans in various Member States without electricity and develop stronger network security standards".

A serious incident on the continental European electricity network on 4 November lead to blackouts over most of the system. Following this incident, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs requested the UCTE to produce a report on the causes of such major failures. He also asked for the assessment of the European Regulators Group (ERGEG) which will report, in the next few days, about the lessons to be learned from this event.

Following the investigation carried out by UCTE, three main factors appear as the causes of the November incident:

- Firstly, E.ON Netz, the electricity transmission system operator who was at the origin of the fault, did not have the security procedure in place and did not even have the full technical tools to verify that the system operated within the security limits.

- Secondly, other European transmission system operators did not receive information on the actions taken by the German transmission operator.

- Thirdly, lack of sufficient investment both at the level of the reliability and of the operation of the grid must also be blamed.

Other issues to be tackled are the behaviour of distribution networks and in case of disturbances, the disconnection and reconnection of loads and generators.

These causes confirm the European Commission's analysis in favour of common action for ensuring the security of electricity supply throughout the European Union. As outlined in its recent Energy Package, announced on 10 January, the Commission considers it urgent to:

* Accelerate the adoption, in the context of a new Community mechanism and structure, of essential common binding network security standards;

* Enhance the coordination between transmission system operators to ensure an effective real-time operation of the European grid; Efforts should be made to have a gradual evolution towards regional system operators; this should require effective unbundling as discussed in the Commission Strategic Energy Review;

* Improve investments in the European grid both to ensure its reliability and the construction of a truly competitive European market; The Commission's proposals underlined in its Priority Interconnection Plan therefore need to be implemented quickly.

•Date: 1st February 2007 • Region: W.Europe •Type: Article •Topic: Power management
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