Large parts of Spain and Portugal hit by power outage

MADRID: Spain and Portugal were hit by a widespread power blackout on Monday (Apr 28) that paralysed public transport, caused large traffic jams and delayed airline flights, and left utility operators scrambling to restore the grid.

Although nothing was off the table, there was no indication that the outage was caused by a cyberattack, said Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.

He said the authorities were trying to restore the situation in the next few hours, but Portuguese utility REN said fully normalising the network could take up to a week.

It said the power supply interruptions in Portugal were caused by a fault in the Spanish electricity grid, related to "a rare atmospheric phenomenon".

"Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines, a phenomenon known as 'induced atmospheric vibration'," it said.

"These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network."

It added: "Due to the complexity of the phenomenon and the need to rebalance electricity flows internationally, it is estimated that full normalisation of the network could take up to a week."

The outage caused chaos in parts of Portugal and Spain as traffic lights stopped working, causing gridlock. Transport networks were halted, hospitals were left without power and people were trapped in the metro and in elevators.

In Madrid, hundreds of people stood in the streets outside office buildings and there was a heavy police presence around some important buildings, with officers directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights.

The Spanish and Portuguese governments met to discuss the outage, which also briefly affected parts of France, and a crisis committee was set up in Spain, sources familiar with the situation said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also visited electricity transmission operator Red Eléctrica's control centre.

Red Electrica said it was working with regional energy companies to restore power. Its operations chief also said that it had never experienced such a widespread outage.

REN said it had activated plans for the phased restoration of the electricity supply.

Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.

The European Commission said it was in contact with the authorities in Spain and Portugal and the European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E to try to establish the cause of the outage.

GRIDLOCK

Power outages on this scale are rare in Europe. In 2003, a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.

In Madrid, the air was filled with the sound of police sirens and helicopters clattered overhead.

The towering Torre Emperador skyscraper in the Spanish capital was evacuated via stairs. Worried people tried desperately to reach their children's schools as the cell signal came and went.

In a video posted on X, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida urged the capital's residents to minimise all travel and stay at their current locations if possible.

Airports reported delays. AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.

Portugal's airport operator ANA said airports activated emergency generators, which allow essential airport operations to be maintained at Porto and Faro airports for now.

"In Lisbon, operations are ongoing but with limitations. So far, there have been no impacts on Madeira and Azores airports," it said.