'Overvoltage' caused April Blackout, Spain Says

A major power outage that paral-ysed the Iberian Peninsula in April was caused by "overvoltage” on the grid that triggered “a chain reaction”, according to a govern-ment report released Tuesday.

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The blackout had "multiple" caus-es, Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen told reporters, adding the system "lacked suffi-cient voltage control capacity" that day. Overvoltage is when there is too much electrical volt-age in a network, overloading equipment. It can be caused by surges in networks due to over-supply or lightning strikes, or when protective equipment is insufficient or fails. When faced with overvoltage on networks pro-tective systems shut down parts of the grid, potentially leading to widespread power outages. Aagesen singled out the