A massive power outage hit Spain and Portugal, leaving millions without electricity. The outage also affected parts of France and Andorra.
Emergency Declared
Spain’s Interior Ministry declared a state of emergency in several regions, including Madrid, Andalusia, and Extremadura. The ministry said the emergency would be enforced in areas that requested it.
The power outage caused widespread disruption to transportation and public services. Many train stations in Spain and Portugal were shut down. In Portugal, 96 flights were canceled, while Spain canceled 45 flights.
Restoring Power
Red Eléctrica, Spain’s national grid operator, said it had restored 35% of the affected energy supply. Power was being restored from both domestic and French sources.
In Madrid, some shops and metro stations started getting electricity back. Although train and metro services remained suspended, security personnel gathered at the entrance of Sol metro station, indicating it would reopen soon. Internet services also started coming back online.
In Portugal, the government’s website was down for several hours. Phone networks were also unavailable in some areas. Trains were not running, forcing people to use buses. Long lines formed at supermarkets as card payment systems were down.
Growing Frustration
Frustration grew in Portugal as Spain’s power company estimated it would take 6-10 hours to resolve the issue, while Portuguese officials predicted it would take around a week. Meanwhile, many cities in Spain started getting their power back.
Portugal’s power company later reported that it had restored power to two substations, bringing electricity back to over 750,000 customers nationwide.
Unclear Cause
The cause of the massive outage remains unclear. REN, Portugal’s energy grid operator, suggested it was due to a rare weather phenomenon that caused extreme temperature fluctuations in Spain. This led to abnormal vibrations in a 400 kV high-voltage power line, resulting in simultaneous failures across different power systems and a widespread disruption across the European grid.
Experts in the UK said the outage was unlikely the result of a single fault. They noted that large-scale power outages like this occur at least once a year somewhere in the world, each with different causes and effects.
Source: bbc