The current year started with an enormous challenge for the European transmission system operators: the system split on January 8 has put the emergency mechanisms of the continental European grid to the test and showed once more how important the TSOs’ closely coordinated international cooperation is.
Considering huge interest of media and the general public in the topic, we are offering a popular scientific explanation of the events of January 8 leading almost to a large-scale blackout in a short video (© Austrian Power Grid). We publish it with the permission of the Austrian transmission system operator Austrian Power Grid AG (www.apg.at).