Power outage leaves large parts of Spain and Portugal without electricity
Spain and Portugal were surprised by a widespread outage on Monday that causes problems to citizens in both countries.
A blackout affected Spain and Portugal on Monday and paralysed public transport, caused traffic jams and delayed flights across both countries. As utility companies rushed to restore the grid, Spanish transmission operator Red Eléctrica warned that the outage — whose cause remained unknown — could last between six and ten hours. Authorities have not ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack.
The outage hit across Spain and Portugal, including their capitals, Madrid and Lisbon. According to, Associated Press, the Portuguese National Cybersecurity Center issued a statement saying there was no sign the blackout was due to a cyberattack.
Spain and Portugal suffer from a massive blackout
The outage triggered widespread chaos, with traffic lights out and transport networks halted. Hospitals lost power, and people were trapped inside metro systems and elevators. In Madrid, streets filled with people evacuated from office buildings, while police directed traffic and secured key areas.
Eduardo Prieto, head of operations at Red Eléctrica, told journalists it was unpresented, calling the event "exceptional and extraordinary".
The Spanish and Portuguese governments convened emergency meetings, and a crisis committee was set up in Spain.
"The government is working to determine the origin and impact of this incident and is dedicating all resources to resolve it as soon as possible", the Spanish government said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Red Eléctrica’s control centre.
Spain's public broadcaster RTVE said a major power outage hit several regions of the country just after midday local time, leaving its newsroom. According to Expresso, a Portuguese newspaper, E-Redes, Portuguese distributor, the outage was due to "a problem with the European electricity system".
Madrid and Lisbon experienced delayed flights because of the blackout
Airports reported delays. AENA, Spanish airport operator, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported fight delays around the country.
Portugal's airport operator ANA said airports activated emergency generators, which for now allows essential airport operations to be maintained at Porto and Faro airports.
"In Lisbon, operations are ongoing but with limitations. So far, there have been no impacts on Madeira and Azores airports," it said.
Madrid’s Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida urged citizens via social media to limit movement and stay put where possible
The disruption also spilled into major events. The Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended mid-match, as scoreboards and overhead cameras lost power.
Moreover, the European Commission, confirmed it was authorities in Spain and Portugal, as well as ENTSO-E, the European network of transmission system operators, to help determine the outage's origin.