On Friday, Jan. 8, a major incident in the European power grid led to a strong frequency drop, which could have led to full blackout over Europe. The incident reached high- alert level 4 out of 5, the second most severe ever in Europe.
The reason for such an incident is in principle always similar: If an unstable system is disturbed by a local disturbance, which, considered by itself, is not dangerous, a chain reaction can quickly grow, leading to a big shortage in the overall power grid, which either leads to severe damage of the grid infrastructure or to an emergency shut-down of parts of the grid for protection.
In this case, the synchronized European grid was split into two separate “islands,” and grid operators had to initiate contracted load shedding in Italy and France to keep the grid stable.
