Electricity is being restored across Spain and Portugal after a massive outage left the two countries in chaos for most of Monday, grounding flights, forcing evacuations from metro stations, and bringing life to a standstill.
On Monday midday, a sudden massive outage hit the electricity transmission systems of Spain and Portugal, and briefly parts of France, in a very rare blackout in Europe, whose causes are yet to be determined.
The blackout, which began at around 12:00 PM GMT on Monday, hit major cities and transportation networks, leaving authorities scrambling to restore power and ascertain the underlying cause. Airports grounded flights, hospitals postponed routine surgeries, while authorities in both Spain and Portugal declared a state of emergency. Internet and mobile phone services were interrupted.
Thousands were stranded on public transport and millions of residents were without power for hours.
While authorities scramble to ascertain the causes of the blackout, power is being restored to many parts of Spain and Portugal.
Spain’s national rail operator Renfe has said its services are gradually being restored on Tuesday morning.
By 5 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Spain had restored 92% of its power, according to Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that the whole of Spain, with population of about 48 million residents, would have power restored by the end of the day on Tuesday.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said there was “no indication” the blackout was caused by a cyberattack.
Joao Conceicao, who is a board member of Portuguese grid operator REN, told reporters the company isn’t ruling out the possibility of a “very large oscillation in electrical voltage, first in the Spanish system, which then spread to the Portuguese system.”
Eduardo Prieto, head of operations at Red Eléctrica, said the event was “exceptional and extraordinary.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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