What would have happened in Menorca if there was a submarine electrical connection?
Nov. 5, 2018
A team of researchers from IFISC (CSIC-UIB) have simulated what would have been the consequences of the cut in the power lines affected by the tornado that hit Menorca last October 28th if the submarine cable connecting the electrical network of Mallorca with that of Menorca were operational.
According to the simulations carried out, the probability of suffering a blackout would be considerably reduced. Curiously, the existence of cascade effects in electrical networks shows that in 8 percent of the cases the underwater interconnection could have propagated the disturbance of the system to the island of Mallorca, and would have caused an even greater blackout in terms of power and number of users affected.
The model proposed by IFISC researchers (CSIC-UIB) estimates that, if the submarine cable between cala Mesquida (Mallorca) and cala en Bosque (Menorca) had already been operational, a simultaneous cut of the Dragonera to Mercadal and Dragonera to Ciutadella lines would have caused a significant blackout in only 40 percent of the cases.
Of this 40 percent of cases the researchers pointed out that in 71 percent of the simulations made the impact of the blackout, in terms of power and affected users, would have been reduced to less than half comparing with the situation in which the submarine cable were not operational. On the other hand, in 21 percent of the simulations, the blackout would have had a similar impact.
Finally, and significantly, in the remaining 8 percent of the simulations that have led to a blackout with the operating cable, the impact is clearly higher, and the supply cut would also spread to the island of Mallorca. This effect is framed in cascade failures: in highly interconnected systems there may be systemic failures. In the latter case, although the blackout would have a larger wingspan, the supply in the western part of Menorca could have been re-established in a much shorter period of time, given that in Mallorca there would be no destroyed lines.
In other words, according to simulations made by IFISC researchers (CSIC-UIB), the submarine cable could have greatly reduced the impact that the power cut has had on users of the island of Menorca. But it cannot be ruled out that the blackout would have spread in cascade on the island of Mallorca and would have affected more people, although probably this impact would have been for a shorter period of time, due to the greater ease of re-establishing the service.
This
study was carried out by researchers Damià Gomila and Pere Colet (IFISC, CSIC-UIB)
and Benjamín Carreras (Menorcan scientist and honorary professor at the Carlos
III University, Madrid).
