João Peças Lopes of INESC TEC

This presentation examines the Iberian blackout, showing that the event resulted from a combination of causes that included transmission grid high voltage practices usually adopted in Spain, the very limited dynamic voltage control capability of renewable generation plants in Spain, and the occurrence of inter-area and intra-area frequency oscillations prior to the system collapse. The operational measures implemented to mitigate these oscillations, based on transmission network switching operations, progressively aggravated the overvoltage conditions, ultimately leading to the cascading disconnection of renewable generation units and to a voltage collapse driven by excessive overvoltage’s. The widespread tripping of generation units, including also distributed generation, subsequently evolved into a severe frequency stability problem, resulting in the loss of synchronism with the Continental European system and, ultimately, to a complete system blackout.

The presentation also highlights that the grid code requirements for renewable power plants in Spain, particularly the use of fixed power factor operation and limited reactive power capability, significantly constrained the contribution of inverter-based resources to dynamic voltage control. It concludes that future power systems with high shares of renewable generation require updated and more demanding grid code requirements to get namely dynamic reactive power support from renewable power plants, including plants connected in distribution grids, with a rigorous compliance verification, and coordinated wide-area voltage control. Over voltage ride through and fully exploitation of the control capabilities of power electronic converters is identified as a fundamental prerequisite for preventing similar voltage-driven blackouts and ensuring the secure and resilient operation of future low-carbon power systems.

Biography:

João Peças Lopes is Emeritus Full Professor at Porto University. He is presently Director and Coordinator of the TEC4Energy initiative at INESC TEC. His main domains of research are related with large scale integration of renewable power sources, power system dynamics, storage systems and security of supply, microgeneration and microgrids, electric vehicle grid integration and exploitation of P2P using hydrogen. He is author or co-author of more than 500 papers and co-editor and co-author of the book “Electric Vehicle Integration into Modern Power Networks” edited by Springer. He has consistently been ranked among the world's most highly cited scientists of the power systems area. He has also maintained an extensive collaboration with regulatory authorities, governments, and companies in the energy sector, both in Portugal and internationally. He is a Fellow from IEEE.

Ricardo Bessa

The increasing complexity of modern critical infrastructures, driven by the large-scale integration of renewable energy sources, distributed energy resources, and advanced automation, is placing unprecedented demands on control room operators. The recent Iberian power system blackout highlighted both the challenges faced by human operators during fast-evolving system disturbances and the limitations of current decision-support tools. This talk uses the Iberian blackout as a motivating case study to discuss how the next generation of intelligent decision-support systems can strengthen the resilience and reliability of power system operations. The presentation explores the vision of creating an AI-powered cognitive layer that continuously assists operators by enhancing situational awareness, anticipating system evolution, evaluating alternative control actions, and providing transparent, trustworthy recommendations in real time. Rather than replacing human expertise, this approach focuses on augmenting human cognitive capabilities, enabling operators to make faster, better-informed, and more confident decisions under uncertainty. The talk is based on the ongoing Horizon Europe project AI4REALNET, which is developing a human-centric framework for trustworthy artificial intelligence in the operation of critical infrastructures. The presentation will introduce the AI4REALNET framework, its vision for human-AI collaboration across different levels of autonomy, and examples of intelligent assistants being developed for power system operation. 

Biography:

Ricardo Bessa (b. 1983, Viseu), IEEE Fellow, earned his 5-years in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2006), M.Sc. in Data Analysis (2008), and Ph.D. in Sustainable Energy Systems (2013) from the University of Porto. He is Associate Professor at the University of Porto and Coordinator of the Center for Power and Energy Systems at INESC TEC. His research spans energy forecasting, computational intelligence, and smart grids. He led projects like AI4REALNET and contributed to FP6 ANEMOS.plus, H2020 Smart4RES,  H2020 InteGrid, HE ENERSHARE, HE AI-EFFECT. Received the ESIG Excellence Award (2022) and he serves as an Associate Editor of IEEE Data Descriptions, Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, and International Journal of Forecasting, and is a former AE of IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.