Additional Coverage:
- Millions without power in Spain, Portugal and parts of France, Spanish officials say (abcnews.go.com)
Millions across Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France were plunged into darkness Monday following a major disruption to the European power grid. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addressed the nation Monday evening, confirming the widespread outage but stating the cause remained under investigation.
While the situation caused significant disruption, Red Eléctrica, Spain’s national grid operator, reported rapid progress in restoring power. By Monday night, power had been restored to 82.4% of the Iberian Peninsula, with almost all national substations back online.
The Spanish government immediately convened an emergency crisis meeting, and the Interior Minister declared a national emergency in several regions, including Madrid and Andalucía. The outage, which began midday Monday, saw a staggering 15 gigawatts of power vanish from the system in a mere five seconds. All possible causes are being thoroughly investigated, but European Council President Antonio Costa confirmed there was no evidence of a cyberattack.
Red Eléctrica mobilized to restore power to mainland Spain and Portugal, deploying generators as part of the recovery process. Earlier Monday evening, the company announced that 45% of transmission network substations had been re-energized, and estimated full restoration within six to ten hours.
Prime Minister Sanchez assured the public that authorities were working diligently to identify the source of the problem and urged people to stay home while emergency generators were deployed.
While airports remained open, widespread delays and cancellations ensued. Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport experienced the most disruptions globally, followed by Barcelona and Madrid airports. Officials expect normal service to resume in Lisbon and Porto by late Monday night.
The outage also severely impacted Spain’s rail network, affecting over 100 trains and stranding approximately 35,000 passengers. The armed forces were deployed to assist those affected, but full rail service is not expected until Tuesday. Hospitals in Madrid and Barcelona were forced to cancel routine treatments, though partial resumption of normal operations is anticipated on Tuesday.
Even the Madrid Open tennis tournament wasn’t spared, with matches canceled to ensure the safety of players, fans, and staff.
This situation continues to unfold. Stay tuned for further updates.