Millions of people in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France were left without electricity on Monday after a massive power outage. The blackout caused widespread disruptions, including canceled train services and flights, traffic jams, and communication issues. Christian Ruby, president of Eurelectric, said the issue might be linked to the connection between France and Spain’s power grids. However, he noted that other factors could be involved.
Chaos Across Iberia
The outage brought daily life to a standstill. In Madrid, Spain, 286 buildings were evacuated due to people being trapped in lifts. Traffic lights weren’t working, causing gridlock in many cities. At Madrid’s Barajas Airport, 45 flights were grounded. Lisbon’s airport saw 96 canceled flights. The Madrid Open tennis tournament was also canceled.
Other impacts included:
- Bank ATMs were out of order, with long queues forming.
- Some petrol stations stopped operating.
- Madrid’s metro system shut down.
- Hospitals activated emergency plans.
- Nuclear power plants automatically shut down.
- Spanish oil company Moeve halted operations.
Recovery Efforts
By Monday evening, Spain’s Transport Minister, Oscar Puente, reported that 11 trains were still stranded. Spain’s grid operator said it could take hours to restore power fully. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that around 90% of the country had electricity back by Monday night. In Lisbon, power was restored, but the government declared a state of emergency in some areas to speed up aid.
The Balearic and Canary Islands were unaffected. Authorities are still investigating the cause, but a cyberattack has been ruled out. Sanchez discussed the crisis with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Spain lost 15 gigawatts of power in just five seconds – 60% of its total demand. Technicians are working to determine why this happened so quickly. The incident has raised concerns about the resilience of Europe’s power grid. So far, officials haven’t identified a single cause. The investigation is ongoing.