Late on Monday, the 28th of April, electricity began to be restored to parts of the Iberian Peninsula after a major blackout paralysed large parts of Spain and Portugal. The outage disrupted aircraft flights, halted public transport and forced hospitals to cancel planned operations, reports Reuters.
Spain’s interior ministry declared a state of national emergency, deploying 30 000 police officers across the country to maintain order while both governments convened emergency cabinet meetings.
In Spain, power began to be restored in the Basque Country and Barcelona in the early afternoon and in parts of Madrid on Monday evening.
ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL GRID, BY THE END OF MONDAY AROUND 61% OF ELECTRICITY HAD BEEN RESTORED.
The Spanish energy company used emergency systems to meet demand during the blackout.
Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said in a video posted on X on Monday evening that the city’s street lights had not yet been fully restored and advised people to stay indoors.
In Portugal, electricity was also gradually restored to several municipalities, including in central Lisbon, late on Monday evening.
Portugal’s electricity grid operator REN said 85 out of 89 substations were back on line.
THE CAUSE OF THE BLACKOUT IS UNCLEAR.
REN reported that sudden voltage fluctuations in Spain may have also caused the disruption in Portugal, but that it was too early to say the exact cause as there could be “a thousand and one reasons”.
The Spanish grid operator REE blamed an interruption in the connection with France, which caused a domino effect and the disconnection of the Spanish and French grids, leading to the collapse of the Spanish grid.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said there was “no indication” that the outage, which started at around 11:33 local time, was caused by a cyber attack.
However, rumours of possible sabotage spread and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he had spoken to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Sanchez said that the country lost 15GW of electricity generation capacity in five seconds, equivalent to 60% of the country’s demand. He said technicians were working to find out why the sudden drop occurred.
“This is something that has never happened before,” he said.
France also experienced a temporary power cut. The French electricity grid operator RTE said it had started supplying electricity to some parts of northern Spain after the outage.
THE BLACKOUT CAUSED MAJOR DISRUPTIONS THROUGHOUT SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
Hospitals in Madrid and Catalonia suspended routine operations but continued to treat emergency cases using back-up power. Oil refineries shut down and shops such as Lidl and IKEA closed.
Portuguese police said traffic lights were disrupted throughout the country and the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, while train services were suspended in both countries.
Sanchez said on Monday evening that some 35 000 passengers had been rescued from trains, but 11 trains were still stranded in remote areas.
People in Madrid were also rushing to buy essentials, so there were long queues and empty shelves in shops.
The Madrid Open tennis tournament was also suspended and local radio reported that some people were trapped in lifts and metro cars.
The Bank of Spain said that the electronic banking system was working “adequately” with back-up systems, although residents reported that ATM screens had gone blank.
TRAFFIC JAMS DEVELOPED IN THE CENTRE OF MADRID AS TRAFFIC LIGHTS STOPPED WORKING WHILE MANY SPANIARDS TOOK THE DAY OFF.
According to Cloudflare Radar, a company that monitors global internet traffic, internet traffic in Portugal dropped by 90% and in Spain by 80% compared to the previous week.
As of Monday evening, aviation data company 96 flights departing from Portugal and 45 from Spain had been cancelled.
Power cuts of this magnitude are rare in Europe. In 2003, problems with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major blackout across the Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.
In 2006, an overloaded power grid in Germany caused blackouts in parts of Europe and as far as Morocco.
According to the Ember Centre for Energy Research, around 43% of Spain’s energy comes from wind and solar, another 20% from nuclear and 23% from fossil fuels.