Cause of Spain power outage still unclear after mass blackout, travel chaos

MADRID – Life in Spain and Portugal began to return to normal Tuesday, a day after a massive power outage paralyzed the Iberian Peninsula, leaving governments, companies and experts scrambling to figure out what went wrong.

As questions build, it may take weeks before the blackout’s cause is clear.

“This cannot happen again,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Tuesday, of the largest blackout in Spain’s history. “We will take the necessary measures to prevent this from happening again and hold private operators accountable.”

Red Eléctrica, the corporation that operates Spain’s electric grid, ruled out a cyberattack, human error and any unusual weather or atmospheric phenomena.

Eduardo Prieto, head of operation services at Red Eléctrica, said two “disconnection events” occurred just a second apart shortly before Monday’s blackout. These took place in Extremadura, in southwestern Spain, a region with significant solar energy production.

“At 12:33, there was a very significant loss of electricity generation in Extremadura. The system managed to recover, but a second and a half later it failed again and didn’t recover,” Prieto said at a news conference. There is no indication the outage was caused by human error, he said.

The Spanish government said that it continues to investigate what happened and will request an independent report from the European Commission. A final determination of the cause could take several weeks, power grid experts said.

Electric power supply has been fully restored, but some rail transport problems persist, such as cancellations and delays.

The blackout showed the vulnerability of Europe’s electrical grid – even on days without extreme weather or spiking demand.

“This disruption serves as a clear warning: Without stronger domestic resilience and improved regional coordination, future grid failures could have even more severe consequences,” said Pratheeksha Ramdas, a renewable energy analyst at Oslo-based market research firm Rystad Energy.

More than 50 million people live on the Iberian Peninsula, most of which is divided between Spain and Portugal. Some areas of France bordering Spain were also hit with blackouts, as was Andorra, a small country in the Pyrenees mountain range between France and Spain.

Authorities did not provide an immediate estimate for the number of people affected by the blackout, which began Monday about 12:30 p.m. Madrid time. Portugal’s national grid operator described it as a “massive cut” in electricity supply across the peninsula. Data from Red Eléctrica showed a sudden plunge in electricity demand, from about 27,000 megawatts to less than 13,000, and levels remained abnormally low for hours.

The outage ground life to a halt. Trains stopped running. Hospitals canceled nonessential surgeries, according to news agencies, and depended on backup generators. Businesses were unable to process credit card transactions. Many people found themselves trapped in elevators, some waiting hours to escape. Several Madrid Open tennis matches suspended play, with photos from the day showing a court with nonfunctioning scoreboards and darkened stands. Citizens were urged to restrict cellphone use and to call emergency dispatchers only “when it is really necessary.”

The radio became a vital lifeline for news in Spain, and corner stores overflowed with people buying candles, lighters and torches. In cities including Madrid, with the metro and regional train system halted, thousands were forced to walk home, often for more than an hour on foot. Downtown Madrid became clogged with vehicles and pedestrians, as nonfunctioning traffic lights led to severe traffic jams. Groups gathered outside hotel lobbies, seeking stray WiFi that remained available due to the business’s generators.

Still, some Spaniards found joy amid the chaos.

Buoyed by the mild weather, public parks and squares were packed with residents milling about. People carried chairs out of their homes, taking seats in the streets as they drank, ate and listened to the news on radios, or to music. Bars were dark, but patrons packed the terraces – paying in only cash – and erupted into cheers as electricity returned in the evening, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Northern and southern regions of Spain came back online late Monday afternoon, and the recovery then progressed in the evening to Madrid and other areas. Red Eléctrica declared that the grid had resumed normalcy as of 11:15 a.m. Madrid time on Tuesday.

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Kaur reported from Washington, and Harlan from Rome. Angie Orellana Hernandez in Washington contributed to this report.