The Day Europe’s Power Grid Came Close to a Massive Blackout

As biting cold caused power demand to surge across western Europe on January 8, the continent’s electricity network came close to a massive blackout.

Europe’s grid, which is usually connected from Lisbon to Istanbul, split into two as the northwest and southeast regions struggled to keep the same frequency. The problem originated in Croatia and led to the equivalent of 200,000 households losing power across Europe. Supply to industrial sites was cut in France and Italy.

How Europe’s grid split to avoid a huge blackout

Entsoe

While this event hasn’t been linked to a surge in renewable power, as Europe replaces big coal and nuclear stations with thousands of ...