Electricity supply has been almost fully restored in Spain after a massive blackout on Monday that left several European countries without power, Red Eléctrica, the company that operates the national grid, said on its social media account.
“99.16 per cent of demand on the peninsula has been restored, with production at 21.26 thousand megawatts. 100 per cent of the power grid’s substations are operational,” the operator said.
A large-scale power outage occurred on Monday across almost the entire territory of Spain, as well as affecting Portugal, France and Andorra.
The outages began at around 12:20 p.m. local time. As a result, millions of people were left without power. There were also disruptions to transport, communications systems and airports. Mobile internet and cellular communications were almost non-functional. According to the agency, the power loss in Spain’s energy system after the outage exceeded 10 GW. This is more than a third of the country’s daily energy consumption.
The exact causes of the incident have not yet been determined. A statement from the European Union’s cybersecurity agency (ENISA) said that the large-scale outage could have been caused by sudden power surges. Spanish authorities agree with this assessment. Such fluctuations cause chain reactions that can lead to power outages. At the same time, the operator Red Electrica said that the outage could have been caused by a rare atmospheric phenomenon: extreme temperature fluctuations in the interior of Spain.
The damage from the large-scale power outage in Europe could reach €1.2 billion, and if the consequences are not quickly resolved, the amount will increase significantly.
Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont commented on X:
“From the massive power outage affecting our country and neighbouring countries, we can draw some preliminary conclusions:
1. The Catalan government, and especially its president, is responding late and poorly. In crises of this magnitude, it is important to act early and remain calm in moments that are too prone to speculation, conspiracy theories and disorientation. Providing information about services is one thing, but leadership is another.
2. The system has significant weaknesses or vulnerabilities that need to be addressed as soon as possible. A thorough audit should be carried out with humility, and lessons should be learned from this experience.
3. Our society is highly dependent on electronic communications (e.g., electronic prescriptions). I don’t know if there is a way to avoid putting all our eggs in one basket, but what happened today makes us think about it.
4. I have no reason to doubt that the protocols were applied correctly, but even so, a monumental collapse could not be avoided. Something will have to change to ensure that a similar situation does not cause so much chaos and uncertainty in the future. Let’s learn from experience, once again.
5. Some institutions closed their Twitter accounts because they did not like Elon Musk (neither do I, not at all), but they forgot that their duty is to keep all channels open for emergencies. Today’s situation is one of them. They should reconsider their decision.
6. And please, when explaining the reasons for this shutdown, let the Catalan public media seek the opinion of real experts, of whom there are many in the country, and who speak Catalan.”
