The Iberian blackout has highlighted the critical importance of electricity security – EQ
In Short : The recent blackout across the Iberian Peninsula has exposed vulnerabilities in electricity infrastructure, emphasizing the urgent need for resilient energy systems. As grids face increasing stress from climate impacts and rising demand, the incident serves as a wake-up call for policymakers to prioritize energy security, diversify sources, and enhance regional cooperation to prevent future widespread disruptions.
In Detail : Electricity security is essential for modern economies and societies
The recent blackout across the Iberian Peninsula underscores how deeply electricity is embedded in modern society. Within seconds of a failure, millions of citizens and businesses can be affected as power goes down for homes, schools, communication networks, financial services, transport and much more, disrupting the economy and daily life.
The incident in Iberia came against the backdrop of rising electrification and fast-growing demand for electricity around the world. As the IEA has previously observed, the world is moving rapidly towards a new Age of Electricity. Over the next decade, global electricity consumption is poised to grow six times as fast as total energy demand, driven not only by the conventional uses of electricity that power growing economies but also by newer sources of demand such as EVs and AI-focused data centres.
At the same time, important changes are taking place on the supply side of the electricity sector due to the rapid deployment of technologies such as solar PV and wind around the world. Since 2010, global installed capacity of solar PV has expanded more than 50-fold, while wind capacity has risen sixfold and bioenergy capacity has nearly tripled.
In this context, ensuring the security and resilience of power systems is not just a technical challenge but also a strategic necessity. Resilience refers to the ability to recover from disruptions, while security focuses on preventing disruptions in the first place. Both are essential for modern power systems.
These themes were reflected in discussions at the Summit on the Future of Energy Security the IEA co-hosted with the UK government in April 2025, bringing together decision makers from 60 governments and over 50 major energy companies. At the summit, there was consensus that electricity security is central to energy security in the 21st century. Participants agreed that ensuring electricity security today means not only monitoring traditional data on the reliability of electricity systems in a rapidly evolving context of both supply and demand, but also addressing risks tied to cyber threats, geopolitical dynamics, supply chain issues, extreme weather and climate change. This builds on the IEA’s longstanding work in this area, which ranges from producing high-quality data and analysis to convening a wide range of stakeholders for discussions on key challenges and how best to address them.
Recent blackouts in different parts of the world demonstrate the significant consequences of electricity disruptions. A transmission system malfunction in Chile in February 2025 affected 99% of the country’s population of 20 million for 17 hours, while severe winter weather in Texas in 2021 left nearly 5 million people without power for days. South Australia suffered a storm-induced blackout affecting 850 000 customers in 2016, and an earthquake on the Japanese island of Hokkaido triggered a complete regional shutdown affecting 3 million households after a single large coal power plant went offline. Across these varied contexts, restoration times ranged from hours – as was the case for the Iberian blackout – to days, with economic impacts collectively totalling billions of dollars. This illustrates that electricity security requires unwavering attention across different national contexts and energy system configurations in an increasingly electrified global economy.
Policy makers need to focus on four key pillars for electricity security
It is still too early to conclusively isolate the causes of the recent Iberian blackout in April, which affected tens of millions of people across Spain and Portugal, or to assign responsibility. Official assessments will be essential to fully understand what occurred.
These will come from national authorities as well as from the expert panel convened by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), with participation from regulators, including the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). The investigations, required under EU legislation, will provide the data-based insights needed to comprehensively understand the incident and inform next steps to minimise the risk of such an incident occurring again.
While a considerable amount of public attention has focused on the share of renewable power sources in Spain’s electricity generation at the time of the outage, there is not enough information available yet to determine whether this may have been a factor or to what extent.
In the meantime, the heightened international attention the blackout has brought to electricity security issues provides an opportunity to revisit some common elements of security and resilience as power systems evolve and decarbonise. While electricity systems and market structures vary widely around the world, IEA analysis has identified four critical pillars that apply across diverse geographies and circumstances:
- Robust infrastructure and supply chains: Building a solid foundation for power systems requires robust grid networks, including regional interconnections; diverse energy supplies; secure supply chains for critical components; and strategic reserves to buffer against disruptions.
- Diverse flexibility resources: Essential for system balance, power system flexibility can be achieved by adopting demand-side response mechanisms, developing and retaining dispatchable generation capacity, storage facilities and designing markets that appropriately value and incentivise these services.
- Technical stability solutions: Power quality and system integrity, which includes inertia, can be supported by utilising dedicated devices – including batteries with fast frequency response services, synchronous condensers or innovative converters with grid-forming capabilities – alongside conventional generators.
- Adapting operations: As power systems transform, stakeholders should adjust their operational frameworks to accommodate changes, including by updating and enhancing grid codes, reserve requirements, balancing mechanisms and new regulatory structures.
Effectively tackling these priorities calls for coordinated action by system operators, policy makers, regulators and the private sector. It also requires greater investment in electricity systems broadly as they modernise and grow.
One of the biggest energy security risks today relates to electricity grids. After remaining almost flat for a decade, annual spending on grids climbed by about 10% in 2023 and again in 2024, reaching just nearly USD 400 billion last year – suggesting that some countries are starting to respond to the challenges facing their electricity systems. Even so, to fulfil national energy plans and meet countries’ energy-related goals, annual grid investment worldwide needs to reach USD 700 billion by 2030.
Increasing the flexibility of electricity systems is also urgent. According to IEA analysis, short-term flexibility needs in key electricity markets around the world are projected to more than double by 2030 due to growing demand for cooling, the uptake of electric vehicles, and rising shares of solar and wind generation. To meet these needs, all available sources of flexibility – including dispatchable generation, storage and demand response – will be necessary, as well as grid infrastructure to make the best use of them.
On technical stability, it is important to note that while proven solutions exist, implementation faces significant barriers. New technologies – including dynamic line rating, grid-forming inverters, synchronous condensers and advanced forecasting tools – can help manage grids and ensure quality access to stable power, but they are often underutilised. These solutions also require increased investment, which can be catalysed through modernised regulatory frameworks with improved incentive structures.
How the IEA is working to strengthen electricity security
The IEA has long maintained a focus on electricity security across its work. It is a recurring area of analysis, from our flagship World Energy Outlook to our regular Electricity Report. Electricity security is also at the heart of several recent special reports, including on Integrating Solar and Wind and Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions. And the IEA has provided national assessments in partnership with governments, such as a joint IEA-RTE 2021 study on the technical conditions necessary for a power system with a high share of renewables in France.
Additionally, the IEA’s Electricity Security Advisory Board has for years provided a crucial forum for energy sector stakeholders to discuss leading electricity security issues. We also recently established an Electricity Security Task Force, which has already convened experts from IEA Member countries twice so they can exchange best practices on topics such as grid planning, market design and resilience – with the aim of developing practical tools and recommendations to support policy makers.
Delivering secure electricity systems calls for a coordinated and holistic approach. It requires not just technical solutions but also the political will to prioritise both infrastructure investment and regulatory reform. Another key ingredient is international cooperation, given the interconnected nature of electricity systems and energy systems more broadly and the possibilities this offers for sharing good practices.
The IEA stands ready to support countries in addressing the challenges at hand – delivering data-driven analysis and policy recommendations, and bringing together leaders and experts from around the world to share lessons learned and best practices. As the world moves towards the Age of Electricity, these efforts are more important than ever.
