Iberdrola Defends Solar Plant Amid Blackout Mismanagement Claims

Iberdrola's Response to Grid Operator Claims

MADRID, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The CEO of Iberdrola in Spain on Thursday rejected the claim by the head of the country's power grid operator that mismanagement at a solar plant owned by the utility could have contributed to last year's massive blackout on April 28. 

Testimony Before Senate Committee

Mario Ruiz-Tagle's testimony before an investigating committee in Spain's Senate was the first public acknowledgement by Iberdrola that it owned the infrastructure singled out by the grid operator, the Nunez de Balboa solar plant in the southwestern province of Badajoz. 

Redeia's Allegations and Concerns

"I'm going to tell you for the first time that the plant is my property," he said, denying there was poor management or poor operation at the plant that day.

A spokesperson for Redeia - owner of grid operator REE - declined to comment.

Beatriz Corredor, who chairs Redeia, had told the same upper-house committee in September that mismanagement and poor control of a large solar plant in Badajoz had made the country's power system more vulnerable on the day of the nationwide outage.

The plant "behaved improperly and made the system much more vulnerable as a result", she said, without disclosing the plant's name, owner or its exact location.

(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi; Additional reporting by Paolo Laudani; Writing by David Latona; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)