Spain announces a state of emergency following a widespread power outage.
This extraordinary blackout has affected extensive regions in both Spain and Portugal, leading to significant disruptions in cities such as Madrid and Lisbon. The outage has impacted metro systems, telecommunications, traffic signals, and ATMs.
According to the Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica, it may take between 6 to 10 hours to restore electricity to many areas of Spain, with efforts still ongoing as of Monday evening.
The Portuguese grid operator, REN, attributed the outages to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” originating in Spain, indicating that the complete restoration of the national power grid may require up to a week.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stated that a malfunction in the European grid was responsible for the extensive blackout, with investigations continuing to determine the cause of the “strong oscillation.”
In a related note, REN has dismissed the possibility of a cyberattack being behind the outages.
On Monday, REN confirmed it had “no information” suggesting that the widespread power failures affecting the Iberian Peninsula were the result of a cyber incident. Board member Joao Conceicao stated to the media that the blackout might have been triggered by a “very large oscillation in the electrical voltages,” initially in the Spanish grid before affecting Portugal.
“If it were solely up to REN, the country would have electricity by tomorrow, but unfortunately, it involves more than just REN,” he remarked.
Following the initial outage, Red Eléctrica indicated that restoring power to extensive areas could take 6 to 10 hours, with efforts still underway as of Monday evening.
