Electricity grid authorities in India have called for a series of actions to prevent an Iberian Peninsula-type blackout disrupting power supply for hours on April 28, 2025.

In August, officials from the Ministry of Power, the Grid Controller of India, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), and representatives of state bodies convened to analyze the reasons behind the total voltage collapse in the Spanish and Portuguese electricity systems, which triggered a disconnection from the European electricity grid.

The meeting noted that the conditions preceding the Spanish blackout were characterized by low demand, high variable renewable energy (VRE) penetration, and high voltage. Inadequate reactive support, poorly damped forced and natural oscillations, overvoltage miscoordination, weak interconnections, and non-compliance with standards were identified as the root causes of the blackout.

“The learnings from the above events are extremely relevant for the Indian power system, which is undergoing a rapid transition towards higher penetration of variable renewable energy sources in the grid,” noted a communication sent out by Grid India to power generators and transmission companies after the meeting.

Low power demand and high renewable energy injection have been threatening the stability of the Indian grid over the last few months, with grid operators resorting to renewable energy curtailment in states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu.

Solar and wind energy generation has been rising in India, with solar energy alone generating approximately 43 billion units in the second quarter of 2025, representing a 19.2% year-over-year increase.

During the meeting, Grid India highlighted that over the past three years, India had experienced 68 instances of renewable energy generation loss exceeding 1 GW in large renewable energy complexes, primarily due to inadequate reactive support and fault ride-through failures.

Of these events, 41 occurred between January 2022 and December 2023, resulting in a maximum generation loss of 7,100 MW. Between January 2024 and June 2025, 27 events with a maximum generation loss of 4,930 MW were recorded.

Additionally, low-frequency oscillations triggered by controller interactions were also observed in renewable energy pockets during high generation hours.

However, due to efforts made to enforce compliance with the standards, the frequency and magnitude of the generation tripping events in renewable energy complexes had reduced over time.

Call to Action

The meeting called on renewable energy developers, central and state transmission utilities, and load dispatch centers to ensure compliance with specified standards and regulations for renewable energy projects, both at the interstate and intra-state levels.

It said generation and transmission asset owners must conduct periodic testing and tuning of controllers and model validation of all grid elements as per the Indian Electricity Grid Code 2023.

The meeting also suggested CEA consider revising the construction, connectivity, and grid standards for inverter-interfaced resources such as renewables, battery energy storage systems, data centers, electrolyzers, and synchronous condensers (SynCon).

CEA was also tasked with conducting a pilot project on grid-forming inverters as part of a research and development initiative.

The meeting recommended that central and state transmission utilities plan the installation of dynamic reactive power compensation devices, such as SynCons.

Another suggestion for CEA was to discuss with Rajasthan the possibility of converting old thermal generating units, if identified for retirement, into SynCons.