Link: https://rosatomnewsletter.com/2021/03/25/winter-generated-demand-forreliability/ Please see link above for source text, embedded hotlinks, and comments.
#239 March 25, 2021
Winter Generated Demand for Reliability In January 2021, a surge in power demand and a subsequent split of Europe’s grid into two regions brought the continent close to a massive blackout. A month later, generating equipment damaged by the extreme cold caused rotating outages in Texas (USA). Aggressive expansion of renewable generation was the first thing blamed by media and industry experts. Mass media in France, Germany and Sweden called on the power industry not to cause problems for itself. Europe A malfunction at a substation in Croatia on January 8, 2021 nearly caused a collapse of the сontinental Europe synchronous area. It split into two regions, each trying to maintain the grid frequency and power supply separately from the other. Around 200,000 households across Europe and industrial sites in France and Italy were cut off power supply. Power stations in other European countries had to increase power output immediately in order to maintain critical grid parameters. 1