The massive blackout of 28 April continues to generate tension across Spain’s energy sector. Iberdrola made national and international headlines after taking its confrontation with Red Eléctrica Española (REE) a step further by announcing its intention to sue the grid operator’s president, Beatriz Corredor, for allegedly damaging the company’s reputation through statements made before the Senate.
The conflict stems from Corredor’s appearance before the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on 11 September, where she defended REE’s performance and attributed the cause of the outage to “non‑compliance by conventional generation units with their mandatory voltage‑control obligations.”
Although she did not explicitly name Iberdrola, the company interpreted her remarks as a direct reference and an attack on its integrity. Before filing the lawsuit, the utility plans to submit a conciliation request to the courts in Alcobendas, where REE is headquartered, seeking a public retraction. If no agreement is reached, the case will proceed through ordinary judicial channels.
This episode adds to a long series of clashes between the two entities since the blackout. In June, Iberdrola accused the operator of acting “recklessly and negligently” during the crisis, while REE defended its operational decisions and blamed conventional plants for failing to absorb sufficient reactive power.
The dispute extends beyond the media sphere. The utility challenged the legitimacy of the state committee investigating the outage, filing an appeal before the Supreme Court on the grounds of lacking legal basis and impartiality. In addition, the National Court authorised Iberdrola to join the proceedings investigating whether a possible cyber‑sabotage was behind the incident.
The company seeks judicial recognition of the reputational damage allegedly caused in front of the market, investors and industry stakeholders. Should the lawsuit prosper, it could set a precedent for corporate honour protection across strategic sectors.
At the same time, the controversy highlights the need for full transparency in clarifying the true cause of the blackout — a demand shared by both the public and the industry. Institutional credibility and confidence in energy planning are also at stake, as governments closely monitor the technical and regulatory implications of the case.
Meanwhile, the conciliation process will determine whether the dispute can be resolved without going to trial. Otherwise, Iberdrola will have to prove that Corredor’s statements were directed at the company, potentially escalating the conflict to an even more complex judicial and media arena, while the country awaits a definitive explanation for the event that brought the grid to tension zero.
