Recording of Tuesday, June 23, 2026 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2026 | Language: English | Duration: 19:23 .
SMA, established in 1981 in Germany, is a leader in power conversion technologies with nearly 200 gigawatts of global capacity, ranking as one of the most sustainable companies. A significant blackout on April 28 affected Spain, Portugal, and parts of France, revealing vulnerabilities in the Iberian Peninsula's limited electrical interconnectivity. Spain possesses one of the highest renewable energy usage rates in Europe, utilizing around 9 gigawatts of distributed solar power, which complicates power management due to many unregistered installations. The blackout highlighted power generation issues, including significant voltage fluctuations, cascading effects of overvoltage, and operational challenges due to the retiring of conventional power plants. Restoration efforts saw about 50% of Spanish consumers reconnected by 5 PM, emphasizing both community resilience and the challenges faced due to inadequate voltage control. The aftermath pointed to critical discussions on grid management, the performance of renewable energy plants, and the necessity for advancements in grid-forming technologies. The event underlined economic losses and reputational damage while spurring interest in innovative solutions for future black-start operations.
Automated summarization by AI Conver
Speaker
Dr. Enrique Garralaga
Managing Director
SMA Altenso GmbH
Germany
The share of renewable energies in European power systems is steadily increasing: Germany has already achieved approximately 60 percent, and most of the renewable energy is provided by the volatile sources wind and solar. This is the bright side of the story, but conventional power plants, which have been responsible for grid stability until now, are also being shut down. A further increase in renewable shares requires a shift in the paradigm towards grids operating safely and reliably with power electronic assets. In this context, energy storage systems with grid-forming inverters play a key role, and this session is dedicated to technological solutions, the development and adaptation of grid codes, market incentives and, as well as best practices. Additionally, we will ask whether the way in which grid stability was coordinated in the era of turning masses from momentum reserve to FCR, aFRR and mFRR is still appropriate for inverter-dominated grids.
Further Talks of this session:
Speaker
Dr. Matthias Vetter
Energy Storage Chief Expert
Huawei Nuremberg Research Center
Germany
Speaker
Holger Hesse
Professor for Smart Energy SystemsS&P Global Energy
Kempten University of Applied Sciences
Speaker
Raymond Walsh
General Manager, Project Management
Wärtsilä Energy Storage
USA
Speaker
Christoph Richter
Product Manager
Freqcon GmbH