A fire in France led to power cuts in Portugal and Spain

“Due to fires in the Aude, the very high voltage line (between Perpignan and the west of Narbonne) suffered a technical problem and was shut down” in the middle of the afternoon, reported RTE in a press release, referring to fires in the mountain of Alaric, in the south-west of France.

According to the statement, electricity flows were then transferred to lines in the Western Pyrenees, creating an overload that caused power cuts in France, which ultimately affected the Spanish and Portuguese grids, disconnecting the Iberian Peninsula from the European electricity grid, explained the company that manages the high voltage networks.

“Thus, 2,350 MW of electricity were cut in Spain and around 1,000 MW in Portugal”, explains the press release, which adds that at the end of the afternoon,“ most of the Spanish and Portuguese households were gradually replenished”.

A failure of the European electricity network has now caused partial “blackouts” in several countries.

An energy supply problem affected several Portuguese municipalities, from north to south, where the “blackout” occurred around 4:00 pm.

The cuts also affected the 112 service, which was out of service this afternoon in some districts of the country and is already fully operational, the PSP told Lusa.