Spain's grid operator triggers blackout prevention mechanism for fourth time

Red Eléctrica hits the emergency brake on industry again

This Thursday at 18:00, Red Eléctrica pressed the system's pause button once again. The grid operator has activated the Active Demand Response Service (SRAD, a mechanism that forces large electro-intensive companies to stop consuming electricity within a maximum of 12.5 minutes) for the fourth time this year. Four activations, all in summer: a historic record that nobody in the sector is celebrating.

What is the SRAD, the grid's emergency switch

The SRAD, launched in 2022 and operational since 2023, works like an industrial stop button. Cement plants, steel mills, chemical companies and paper mills that signed up voluntarily to the programme receive compensation for halting their activity whenever the operator orders it. It is no favour: the bill comes to around 1.4 million euros a day, a cost that ends up on everyone's electricity bill.

The official message under suspicion

Red Eléctrica maintains that the system is not in danger, and that it activates this mechanism precisely to prevent any incident. But the order of the sentences matters, as more than one analysis has pointed out: it is activated because there is a risk, not because there isn't. Heavy industry had antiestéticared this moment since late July, and the calendar has proved it right.

Bread for today, hunger for tomorrow?

The situation is like eating the seed corn meant for planting in order to feed the population: it solves the day but jeopardises the harvest. Meanwhile, a growing share of consumers are turning to self-generation as the only way out of the grid's fragility. Installing solar panels and batteries, without going fully off-grid, has become an energy life insurance.

The system holds up, says the operator. But a record four activations in one summer leave an uncomfortable question: how many more times can the seeds be used up before the land runs out of them?