Iberdrola España's power generation plants, key to keeping the power on during the severe weather event in Valencia

The series of tornadoes generated by the cold drop as it ripped through the province of Valencia caused the collapse of several transmission lines managed by Red Eléctrica Española and very high and high voltage electricity distribution lines managed by i-DE, Iberdrola España’s distribution company, at the Catadau transformer substation, which put the electricity system under extreme stress due to the difficulty to maintain the energy balance in the area, which would have aggravated the situation caused by the floods.

The main generation plants in the Valencian Community (Cofrentes nuclear power plant, the pumped-storage hydroelectric power station at La Muela and the Castellón combined cycle plant, managed by Iberdrola España) were essential to guarantee power in the province of Valencia and prevent a general blackout.

The first oscillations in the transmission grid forced the Cofrentes nuclear power plant to make the decision to reduce the plant's load to prevent the plant from tripping from voltage instability caused by the collapse of the infrastructure around the Catadau substation. 

The load shedding allowed the plant to continue generating power despite the instability in the grid and was able to contribute to continuing to feed electricity into the system.

The grid operator, faced with the urgent need to safeguard electricity supply in the area, requested commissioning the La Muela hydroelectric plant, which in a matter of minutes began operating at full capacity. Its commissioning in such a short period of time demonstrated that pumped-storage hydroelectric technology is currently the most efficient system for large-scale energy storage as it brings stability, security and sustainability to the electricity system by generating large amounts of energy with a very fast response time.

Another of the autonomous region's major energy production centres, the Castellón combined cycle power plant, had to be urgently started up, shortening the usual connection process times, to help guarantee electricity.

The Cofrentes nuclear power plant, the La Muela pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant (in Cortes de Pallás) and the Castellón combined cycle plant have a total installed capacity of more than 4,200 megawatts (MW), which guarantees the electricity supply of the Valencia region. In addition, they provide the energy system with a wide range of operational possibilities due to their different technical capacities and their important role as electricity generating plants.