Rethinking power resilience after the Iberian blackout

On April 28, 2025, a large-scale power outage swept across Iberia, disrupting daily life within seconds and exposing the limits of current approaches to grid reliability.

The event highlighted both the challenges of managing increasingly decentralised renewable assets and the shortcomings of traditional emergency protocols. According to Adrian Guggisberg, Division President Electrical Distribution Solutions, at ABB, it is a clear sign that the grid has become far more complex, and that our traditional ways of thinking are no longer sufficient.

This was one of Guggisberg’s key messages in this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast. He emphasises the need to make better decisions about how we build, operate, and configure the grid to keep pace with its transformation.

Guggisberg argues that digitalisation is essential to bringing greater transparency to the decentralised grid, including its configurations and settings. It can also enable more coordinated action across distributed points of the network to balance active and reactive power and manage power quality.

Ultimately, utilities, technology providers, and policymakers need to align on planning, standards, and investment. Without greater coordination, he warns, grid resilience will struggle to keep pace with the rapid transformation of the energy system.

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