Solar Eclipse: The successful stress test of Europe’s power grid – more ahead

Solar eclipses occur all the time, all over the globe. In the traditional generation mix with fossil fuels, they were not a big deal for power system operators. This changed with the increasing share of solar generation. An eclipse is thus a button ‘off’ for solar, taking huge amounts out of the system, within seconds. For power systems where every second needs to be in perfect balance as power moves at the speed of light, very high variations in solar generation that take place during an eclipse are indeed a challenge. The 20 March 2015 solar eclipse was thus first of its kind event; a true stress test, passed successfully.