A significant power outage struck Spain and Portugal on Monday, impacting major cities, including their capitals.
The blackout disrupted subway systems, phone lines, traffic lights, and ATM machines across the Iberian Peninsula, leaving millions affected.
Such widespread outages are uncommon in the region. Red Eléctrica, Spain’s power grid operator, confirmed the incident, stating that it was being evaluated.
With a combined population exceeding 50 million, it is unclear exactly how many people were impacted.
Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE reported that the outage hit several areas around midday, plunging the newsroom, Spain’s parliament in Madrid, and subway stations into darkness.
A graph from Spain’s electricity network showed a sharp drop in demand, from 27,500 MW to approximately 15,000 MW, at around 12:15 p.m.
A few hours later, Spain’s electricity network operator stated that power had been restored to the northern and southern regions of the country, beginning the process of nationwide recovery.
In Portugal, home to about 10.6 million people, the outage affected Lisbon and its neighboring areas, as well as parts of the north and south.
The Portuguese government attributed the issue to problems originating outside the country, with an official telling national news agency Lusa, “It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It’s still being ascertained.”
According to Portuguese distributor E-Redes, the blackout was caused by “a problem with the European electricity system.” To stabilize the network, the company was forced to cut power in certain areas. E-Redes also mentioned that parts of France were impacted.
In Lisbon, several subway cars had to be evacuated, and several services were disrupted across Portugal.
Courts ceased operations, and ATM and electronic payment systems were affected. Additionally, traffic lights in Lisbon stopped functioning, and mobile phone calls were impossible, although some apps remained operational.
