Hernan Arrigone article in Energy Digital: The Blackout Premium: Actis’ Playbook for Resilient Grids

Drawing on the April 2025 Iberian blackout, alongside earlier grid failures in Chile and Brazil, Hernan argues that 21st-century generation is being connected to networks designed around 20th-century physics. He sets out four building blocks of a more resilient grid: grid-forming controls, battery storage used for system services, network-strengthening equipment, and markets that pay for these capabilities. Growth markets, he argues, are particularly well placed to build these in from the outset.

Click here to read the full article online and read on below for a snippet of Hernan’s commentary.

Hernan Arrigone, Principal, Energy Infrastructure at Actis, commented:

“A solar farm built in 2018 to deliver megawatt-hours under a 20-year offtake is a different asset to a solar-plus-storage plant built in 2027 with grid-forming controls, system-strength contribution and ancillary-service revenues. They might sit on the same balance sheet, but they do not support the grid in the same way and will not trade at the same multiple.

“The next decade of grid returns will most likely belong to investors who understand that difference. The premium will not sit with the cheapest megawatt. It will sit with the megawatt the system can trust.”