Spain and Portugal Experience a Serious Power Outage That Disrupts Events and Transportation

Transport has been affected, trains have been stopped, and play at the Madrid Open has been suspended due to a significant power outage in Spain and Portugal.

Power outages have been common in Spain and Portugal, disrupting major cities and transportation systems. On Saturday, Spanish electricity grid operator Red Eléctrica acknowledged the outages, stating that the “peninsular” system of the country was affected. According to reports, Portugal, a neighbor, has also been impacted.

Madrid’s underground railway system was evacuated in parts, and traffic lights were rendered inoperable. British player Jacob Fearnley was among those had to leave the court during the Madrid Open tennis event, which was also forced to suspend play due to the disturbance. Court cameras and scoreboards were also impacted by the unexpected power outage.

A “key step” toward a complete recovery, Red Eléctrica later declared that electricity was starting to be restored in both the north and south of Spain. The business said, “We continue working to restore power,” and that every resource at its disposal was being used to fix the problem.

In the meantime, Portuguese police announced that metro services in Lisbon and Porto had been suspended and that traffic lights throughout were out of commission. There was significant travel havoc as a result of the disruptions to train services.

To fully restore power and regular operations, authorities and service providers in both nations are still working.