The worst blackout Spain and Portugal have experienced in a generation occurred on April 29, cascading through both countries’ electrical grids to disrupt millions. The blackout, which commenced around 10:33 GMT, was attributed to a failure in Spain’s connection with France, leading to a staggering loss of 15GW of electricity generation in just five seconds. This loss represented more than 60% of Spain’s national demand. It set off a domino effect that incapacitated public transportation, grounded common flights, and blocked emergency response services.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, also on X, noted that emergency protocols were triggered in record time. He touted that authorities were able to evacuate 35,000 passengers in trains stranded by the outage. This tremendously underlines the dispatch with which they called to action for the crisis. After the blackout, power at least began to be restored to most neighborhoods. By late Monday, over 61% of electric power had been restored, including in the affected areas of the Basque Country, Barcelona, and some areas of Madrid.
In Portugal, the impact was equally severe. The country’s electric grid operator, REN, reported that internet traffic dropped 90% at the time of the blackout. Traffic signals faced major outages, with metro services in Lisbon and Porto being shut down entirely. By late on Monday, REN said it had restored all but four of the 89 power substations.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said there was “no indication” that a cyberattack was behind the blackout. He reiterated the call for an independent investigation of the deadly incident. At the same time, Sanchez spoke with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as well, working to align efforts at responding.
The operator’s timing couldn’t have been worse—the unexpected outage reverberated across multiple sectors, causing major economic disruptions. We didn’t want Spanish oil refineries to close down operations, or hospitals to cancel elective surgeries. As Eduardo Prieto, REE’s systems operations chief told E&E News, that blackout lasted for “many hours,” making recovery efforts much more difficult.
Joao Conceicao, a board member of REN, elaborated on the technical aspects of the failure, stating that there was a “very large oscillation in electrical voltage, first in the Spanish system, which then spread to the Portuguese system.” This narrative accentuates the reality of how interconnected and dependent the U.S. and Mexican power grids are.
In reaction to the crisis, Spain’s Interior Ministry declared a national emergency. They did it by immediately putting 30,000 police officers on the streets to keep order and protect the public. Spanish energy firm Enagas tripped emergency systems to avoid a spike in electricity demand while restoration efforts continued.