Why Spain’s Rooftop Solar Owners Weren’t Spared From the Blackout

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1. *From Bloomberg News reporters Laura Millan and Olivia Rudgard*

   When the electricity suddenly went out in Spain on Monday, Irene Casas and her husband Luis Morate, who live in an apartment building in a Madrid suburb, lost power along with everyone else. That’s despite the fact that they, along with their neighbors, own a source of electricity: 200 rooftop solar panels installed at the end of 2023.

   The panels didn’t help them ride out the blackout because they are connected directly to the grid.

   [*Read the full story here*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-03/why-spain-s-rooftop-solar-owners-weren-t-spared-from-the-blackout)*.*

2. Look up residential gateway and islanding so you can protect yourself from this.

3. Modern PV systems offer an EPS mode; it is true that many owners of PV systems have the misconception that a standard system would help them during a blackout. But these standard PV systems need to shut down to prevent feeding back electricity to a broken grid, making repair efforts impossible. EPS systems offer to completely separate the house wiring from the grid physically.

4. This is the main reason we have batteries.

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