04 August 2025
The Iberian blackout’s warning: It’s not just the grid that needs upgrading, it’s also the thinking behind it
By Juliet Phillips, Energy Campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels.
Three months after the massive blackout that plunged Spain and Portugal into darkness, European grid operators have published an updated analysis, concluding that there is a strong need to improve the resilience of the power system. This follows a report from the Spanish government, which blamed the “improper” actions of electricity companies operating conventional power plants—such as fossil gas and nuclear—for failing to make their plants available when needed. It also highlights a lack of planning and foresight by the electricity system operator, Red Eléctrica, as a major contributing factor. Together, these failings point to the urgent need for a cleaner, more secure, better-governed energy system.
Modernising Europe’s electricity grids has been high on the political agenda for years, but progress on the ground remains painfully slow. The scale of the problem is staggering. Figures from the past year alone show that across Europe, more than 1,700 gigawatts of renewable and hybrid projects are stuck in grid connection queues.
That’s over three times the capacity needed to hit the EU’s 2030 climate targets and more than twenty times the combined solar and wind capacity additions made by EU countries in 2024.
These fatburgs in the planning system are slowing down how quickly Europe can detoxify itself from risky and expensive imported fossil fuels, which were the root cause of the eye-watering price spike seen when Russia invaded Ukraine.
These are sobering failures in their own right; billions in stalled investment, missed opportunities to create jobs, and boost cheap homegrown energy security. But they’re only the tip of the iceberg. The scale of the economic cost of grid inaction becomes clear when you consider what it means for Europe’s ability to attract and retain global business.
A recent poll of 1,500 global business executives—40% of them representing businesses with a turnover of between $50 million and $1 billion—found that nearly 8 in 10 support a full transition to renewable electricity this decade. More than half said they’re prepared to relocate operations to countries that can offer it within the next five years.
Investment and planning for modern, flexible and secure electricity grids should be a priority for governments all across Europe. Yet currently, there is a lack of adequate regulatory oversight of the long-term plans being made by grid operators. This is made worse by a lack of independent energy system planning and operation, meaning that companies that are making the investments in the grid may have a commercial incentive to behave a certain way.
To point the finger squarely at the transmission system operators (TSOs) responsible for managing Europe’s electricity highways would be unfair. Their job is to maintain and develop the grid, but always within the boundaries set by policymakers, regulators, and national frameworks. The deeper problem lies with the rules and mandates they are required to follow.
TSOs are being asked to plan for that future while tethered to mandates and metrics rooted in a fossil-fuelled, lower demand past. That means they may not be able to exercise the foresight needed to navigate the long-term transition underway. Governments must give TSOs and regulators the legal backing to plan and invest for the world we’ve entered, not the one we’re leaving behind.
This requires updating the mandates of TSOs and energy regulators to reflect their countries’ climate targets and creating fully independent planning bodies to develop and assess long-term grid strategies. These institutions must be empowered to scrutinise investment proposals and ensure that plans serve the public interest.
Our research shows that the independence of grid operators urgently needs strengthening to ensure they act in the public interest, not just that of their shareholders. In 11 countries, transmission system operators (TSOs) still operate under the weakest form of legal separation, known as “ownership unbundling,” meaning they remain part of larger corporate groups that also generate or sell electricity. This creates clear risks of conflict of interest.
Among the countries examined, the UK stands out for taking a more forward-thinking approach, establishing a fully independent energy system operator and introducing a new ‘net zero’ duty for its energy regulator: an example others would do well to follow.
All this will help unlock the anticipatory investments we need—preparing the grid ahead of time—and recognising that technologies like batteries, demand-side response, interconnectors, and other grid enhancing systems are viewed as core infrastructure, not optional extras. These are essential for building the clean, efficient energy system of the future, to deliver lower bills and energy security for households and businesses across Europe.
Of course, it’s right that we investigate the causes of the Iberian blackout thoroughly; such a major disruption demands serious scrutiny. But there’s a risk we fixate on the spark and overlook the dry forest beneath it. The transition to a renewables-based power system isn’t coming, it’s already here. TSOs must be enabled to keep pace.
Grid governance is no longer a technical backwater, it’s central to Europe’s climate, industrial and energy security strategies. If we fail to treat it as such, we’ll pay the price in lost investment, higher bills, energy instability and delayed climate action.