Portugal and Spain Start Power Restoration After Unprecedented Blackout Stops Hospital and Transportation Services

Power has begun to be restored in Spain and Portugal following an unexpected outage that interfered with hospital and transportation services.

Most of Spain and Portugal were paralyzed by an extraordinary blackout that disrupted airports, stopped public transportation, and suspended routine hospital procedures. Late Monday, power started to restore to areas of the Iberian peninsula.

Along with the declaration of a national emergency and the deployment of 30,000 police personnel nationwide, the Spanish and Portuguese governments convened emergency cabinet meetings. The outage’s magnitude is regarded as quite exceptional in Europe.

The cause is still being looked into. Portugal attributed the failure to Spain, while Spain attributed it to a break with France. According to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the nation lost 15GW of electrical generation in five seconds, or around 60% of the total demand. NATO had been notified as a precaution, he added, adding, “This is something that has never happened before.”

Despite Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s statement that there was “no indication” of a cyberattack, sabotage rumors were circulating. According to Joao Conceição, a board member of Portugal’s grid operator REN, a significant voltage oscillation in Spain’s grid may have caused the problem, which quickly impacted Portugal’s system.

The fall was caused by a “severe and unprecedented” failure of the interconnection with France, according to Spain’s national grid operator REE. “The magnitude of the power outage exceeded the capacity of European systems,” Eduardo Prieto of REE stated. Following the interruption, France’s RTE stated that it had sent more electricity to northern Spain.

About 61% of Spain, including areas of Barcelona, Madrid, and the Basque Country, had their electricity back as of Monday night. Lisbon’s power substations were among the 85 out of 89 power substations that Portugal’s REN announced were back online.

Citing dark streets and the necessity for emergency personnel to have unhindered access, Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida asked citizens to stay inside.

Complete restoration is anticipated to take many more hours as authorities continue to determine the underlying cause of the outage.