Note: A play on words – not a political one.
Before anyone jumps to conclusions, let’s clarify: no, this is not an article about Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. The name “Pedro” here is purely a literary coincidence — a nod to one of Aesop’s most timeless fables. In Spanish, Pedro y el lobo (“Peter and the Wolf”) sounds just like Pedro Sánchez, hence the joke. But this fable – which English speakers know as The Boy Who Cried Wolf – echoes with uncanny relevance these days in Spain’s energy sector.
Because what’s happening in the Spanish electricity system in the autumn of 2025 feels like that story come to life. And this time, the wolf isn’t after sheep or a lying shepherd — it’s after the competitiveness of our industry.
October 24, 2025
Act I: The Wolf Is Coming, The Blackout Is Coming
The brilliance of popular wisdom lies in its timelessness. Our infrastructure may need constant updating, but old fables? They never go out of date. We thought progress had pulled us out of the world of wolves and shepherds, but it turns out those age-old lessons – the ones about vigilance, foresight, and anticipation – remain as relevant as ever.
Indeed, that childhood story still has more staying power than many of today’s energy plans.
In the original tale, the boy was a compulsive liar who cried “wolf” out of boredom. But let’s focus on the moral – not the mischief: the tragedy of warnings ignored until it was too late. The story wasn’t really about lying; it was about credibility collapsing and communities growing deaf to repeated alerts. And that’s exactly where the parallel begins.
The warnings were there. The post-blackout analyses all agree on one point: it didn’t come out of nowhere. A coordinated grid failure was a known, reported, even predicted scenario in technical reports. The wolf had been circling the flock for a while. But, as in the story, every cry of “the wolf is coming!” lost strength after too many false alarms. The warnings became background noise — drowned in bureaucracy, conflicting interests, and a dash of technocratic arrogance.
And then, the wolf struck, leaving its calling card on April 28.
Here’s where the allegory turns uncomfortable. This wolf didn’t come for a careless shepherd; it came for our finest sheep – Spain’s industrial base, that engine of competitiveness, that vital organ of our economy. An organ that cannot afford another “April 28.”
In the fable, the sheep represented livelihood, the shepherd’s entire economy. Today, that flock is our industry: the backbone of employment, innovation, and GDP. When the blackout wolf (or the wolf of chronic uncertainty) arrives, it doesn’t take a symbolic sheep — it takes chunks of productivity, export contracts, production shifts, and, ultimately, competitiveness.
Act II: The Hot Potato War and the Silence of the Lambs
Spain’s energy ecosystem is in turmoil. Since late September, CNMC, Red Eléctrica, the distributors, and MITECO have been caught in a crossfire of reports, press releases, and emergency measures – a “hot potato” war rather than a shared strategy.
In one corner, Red Eléctrica warns of voltage fluctuations and calls for urgent new tools; in another, CNMC issues temporary resolutions – bandages on wounds that need surgery – under the looming sword of another grid collapse. The distributors, meanwhile, protest that current remuneration makes it impossible to modernize infrastructure everyone agrees is outdated. And MITECO tries to balance urgency, regulation, and transition without breaking the board in two.
The hot potato passes from hand to hand: “It’s generation’s fault.” “It’s the infrastructure’s fault.” “It’s the operator’s fault.” A sterile fight, a zero-sum game where each defends their turf — while the wolf rubs its paws in the shadows.
Industry, meanwhile, watches from the back row of the theatre, its production lines on edge, realizing its role seems limited to adapting. But if industry waits for others to save it from the wolf, then by the time the wolf enters the pen, it may already be too late.
At Foro Industria y Energía, we’ve been our own “boy who cried wolf” for years – warning that industry must play not just a reactive or active role, but a proactive one in shaping the policies that directly affect it. Energy management is not a technical issue to outsource; it is a strategic lever of competitiveness.
Let’s return to the fable: Pedro guarded his flock – his livelihood and that of his community. Today, that flock is our industrial fabric. We must protect it from the energy wolves — blackouts, volatility, uncertainty. Yet while the shepherds argue over who bought the whistle or who should fix the fence, the flock remains exposed.
Our grid must be not only more resilient, but also more collaborative. Because the blackouts of the future won’t come from a lack of electricity – but from a lack of shared strategy.
Act III: Preventing the Next Energy Wolf
This is no tale guaranteed a happy ending. April 28 was not an anomaly – it was a warning. The wolf is already here, and the fact that Red Eléctrica has requested urgent measures to prevent new blackouts should keep us awake at night. The energy transition – essential and irreversible – is also immensely complex. The risk is real, and if institutions get tangled up while industry stays on the sidelines, the story will repeat itself.
To prevent the wolf from becoming a literal metaphor – a blackout that devours our competitiveness – industry must stop being the sheep and become part of the shepherding: part of the fence design, the watchtower, the command. Not out of vanity, but out of self-preservation.
It would be a costly mistake if, after so many warnings, the industrial sector were to see another “energy wolf” approach without ever having had a voice in the solution. Industry cannot wait for others to guard the flock. It’s time to flip the switch on shared responsibility.
The wolf may come back – but if it finds us prepared and united, perhaps this time, the story will end differently.