Overview

• A May 8 power outage in La Palma, Canary Islands, left around 30,000 people across 20 towns without electricity for nearly two hours, with early reports pointing to a substation fault at the Los Guinchos power plant.
• This localized incident comes just 10 days after the April 28 Iberian Peninsula blackout, which disrupted power for tens of millions in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France.
• Investigations into the April 28 outage are ongoing, with experts examining potential causes such as frequency instability and renewable energy integration challenges.
• Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reaffirmed Spain's commitment to its 2018 renewable energy roadmap, despite growing scrutiny of grid stability and calls to reconsider the nuclear phase-out plan.
• Analysts emphasize the urgent need for grid modernization, including increased storage, grid-forming inverters, and cross-border interconnections, to support Spain's renewable energy goals.