ZGR battery system kept one Spanish village powered during major Iberian blackout

A 160 kW / 250 kWh standalone battery system installed by Spanish manufacturer Zigor Corporación ensured uninterrupted power for the village of San Vicente del Monte during a major blackout that affected the Iberian Peninsula on 28 April 2025. The system, connected to the low-voltage (400 V) grid, supplied electricity to the entire village for more than five hours.

From ESS News

San Vicente del Monte, a small village in Cantabria with around 200 residents, was the only town in Spain unaffected by the April blackout. The resilience was thanks to a 2020-era pilot project developed for the utility Viesgo, which was acquired by Portuguese energy giant EDP that same year.

As part of the initiative, ZGR delivered four turnkey pilot projects across northern Spain, in areas where EDP-Viesgo manages distribution for around 700,000 customers. According to José Antonio Grande, ZGR’s Director of Business Development, these were specifically deployed in rural areas at the end of distribution lines; locations typically more vulnerable to outages and voltage drops.

“The Spanish distribution network is generally stable and robust,” Grande told pv magazine Spain. “But end-of-line branches in rural zones require specific technical measures to strengthen reliability. That’s why we developed these four projects, two in Cantabria and two in Galicia, to improve power quality and ensure backup supply during outages. In the case of San Vicente, the goal was to maintain energy supply even during grid failures.”

To continue reading, please visit our ESS News website.