Investigations were ongoing on Monday to determine the exact cause of a widespread electricity blackout that cut off power to millions of people across Spain and Portugal, leading to huge disruption as authorities battled to restore power.
Passengers in cities were temporarily left stranded on metros, subways and trains. Roads became gridlocked as traffic lights stopped working. Mobile phone services dropped, hampering communication.
Spanish power supplies were back to nearly 100 per cent capacity at around 7am local time on Tuesday. The Madrid underground metro network said it had resumed operating at 8am (6am Irish time) with 80 per cent of trains circulating, but railway infrastructure operator Adif said most trains nationwide were not operating. Portugal’s entire grid has been “stabilised” and all power substations were back on line before midnight, grid operator REN has said.
[ Spain declares state of emergency; Portugal grid operator says issue caused by rare phenomenon ]
The power cut hit both countries’ capitals, Madrid and Lisbon, as well as other cities, regions and towns.
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Spain declared a nationwide state of emergency as authorities worked to restore public services and minimise the upheaval caused by the outages. The exact cause of the blackout had not been confirmed on Monday.
The widespread outages shut off cash machines, causing further disruption to many of the 50 million people who live across the Iberian Peninsula.
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The Portuguese electricity network said the outage began shortly before noon.
Operators in Spain and Portugal reported they had begun to restore power to limited areas by late afternoon, with wider parts of the countries reconnected by the evening.
In a series of warnings, the Portuguese government advised the public to avoid unnecessary travel. “The government is working with the relevant authorities to restore power,” it said. The immediate priority was the health service and critical infrastructure, the government said.
Extra police were deployed to the streets to keep order and direct traffic, given traffic lights were affected by the outages. The government said cyber security officials had indicated there was “no evidence” that the power supply had been knocked out by a cyber attack.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said the government still did not have “conclusive information” about the cause of the power cuts. “It’s better not to speculate. We will know the causes, we’re not ruling out any hypothesis,” he told a press conference.
“We are aware of the relevance and tremendous impact of what’s happening today, of the seriousness for people’s everyday lives, of economic losses for businesses, companies and industries, of the anxiety that it’s causing in thousands of homes.”
Spanish power distributor Red Electrica estimated that restoring power fully to the country and neighbouring Portugal could take up to 10 hours.
Spanish airports were operating on backup electrical systems and some flights were delayed, according to Aena, the company that runs many airports in Spain, including those in Madrid and Barcelona. The outages also briefly affected a part of France bordering northeastern Spain.
The power outage is likely to propel questions about Europe’s energy security on to the agenda of a gathering of centre-right political leaders that is taking place today in blackout-hit Valencia.
Tánaiste Simon Harris is among those travelling to the congress of the European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-right EU political grouping that includes Fine Gael.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz, as well as a number of prime ministers, are due to attend the two-day political conference. Spanish authorities assured organisers of the event in Valencia that power would be restored by midnight on Monday.
The operator of Dublin Airport said it was operating as normal, but the power outage in parts of Spain and Portugal affected some flight schedules. As of 8pm on Monday, there were 13 flight cancellations: two inbound from each of Lisbon, Faro and Seville, and a total of seven outbound, including two to Faro and one to each of Lisbon, Marrakesh, Santiago, Madrid and Alicante.
The airport advised passengers to check directly with airlines for flight updates, as it said “further disruption over the remainder of this evening and tomorrow are possible”.
Dublin Airport said on Tuesday morning that flight operations at airports in Spain and Portugal had returned to normal, allowing for a regular schedule of services to and from Dublin to resume.
– Additional reporting by news agencies
