Massive power outage hits Spain, Portugal

The Spanish Interior Ministry on Monday declared a state of emergency following a power outage affecting most of the country. The emergency status applied to regions that requested it, which included Madrid and Andalusia, the BBC reported. Large parts of Spain and Portugal had no internet, electricity, or cell phone service on Monday due to the outage, which began Monday morning. Parts of southern France also briefly lost power. Spain’s National Police deployed all of its citizen security units, it said.

The blackout shut down train lines, stores, ATMs, and traffic lights, causing chaotic scenes across the affected areas. The Madrid Open tennis tournament canceled its day and night sessions. In Portugal, emergency services were unable to answer many calls or contact some of their teams and vehicles, Portuguese broadcaster RTP reported.

How are power recovery efforts going? Spanish power grid operator Red Eléctrica on Monday evening said 51% of transmission substations were running again, and power was returning to some parts of Spain on the Iberian peninsula. Some of that power was coming from France, the company said. A major Portuguese power company, REN, said restoring power in Portugal could take a week, according to the BBC. But power was flowing again in several areas on the Portuguese coast including the greater Porto area and the outskirts of Lisbon, REN announced Monday afternoon. The European Commission and Ukraine were among those pledging to help recovery efforts.

What caused the power outage? Portuguese power company REN blamed an extreme temperature variation in Spain for the outage, saying it disrupted high-voltage lines, according to the BBC. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday afternoon said a strong oscillation in the European power grid was behind the blackout, but he still did not know the cause of it. He said he had convened a special meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the situation. French power company RTE said reports blaming a fire for the outage in France were false and a cause was still being determined.