"Regarding Gabriel Calzada and Manuel Fernandez Ordonez's op-ed "How the Lights Went Out in Spain" (May 1): My wife and I were in Mijas, a tourist town in the hills of the Costa del Sol, at the time of the outage.
The disruption was total. No power, cell service, internet or running water. Tourists in Europe are highly dependent on tap-to-pay, so they carry little cash. Without cell service and the internet, electronic payment systems didn't work. Banks closed at once making it impossible to get the cash needed to pay taxi drivers to get down the mountain. And forget about calling an Uber. The panic was palpable.
When I heard that the cause was oscillations, I told my wife the problem was likely the excessive use of solar.
As an electrical engineer I know the electric grid requires a perfect balance between supply and demand, which is difficult to maintain with a high percentage of power coming from solar and wind. The passage of clouds can actually add to the instability. As the authors explain, without the shock absorbers of rotating synchronous generators, stability becomes very difficult to maintain. The result, as was learned on vacation, can be catastrophic.
Like the shady and windless summer the Germans faced a few years ago, this is more evidence that a grid that is highly dependent on renewables isn't suitable for the needs of modern living. It's physics, not good intentions that dictates this reality. Thankfully we had some cash and could pay a taxi to get us back to our condo.
Ken Kolkebeck
Sparta, N.J." [1]
This was without any war. We should kick the Scandinavian banks out of Lithuania, switching to credit unions and mostly cash. The profit seeking Scandinavian banks will give us many dead people on the streets next time.
1. A Piece of Advice on the Power Grid in Spain. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 14 May 2025: A18.
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