Massive power outage in Spain and Portugal leaves thousands stranded and millions without lightBARCELONA, Spain (AP) — An unprecedented blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill Monday, stranding thousands of train passengers and leaving millions of people without phone and internet coverage and access to cash from ATMs across the Iberian Peninsula.
The sudden crash of the power grid also left authorities searching for its cause. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed the nation and said that almost 11 hours after the nation ground to a halt, government experts were still trying to determine what happened.
“We have never had a complete collapse of the system,” Sánchez said, before detailing that at 12:33 p.m. on Monday Spain’s power grid lost 15 gigawatts, the equivalent of 60% of its national demand, in a matter of five seconds.
Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica’s head of operations Eduardo Prieto said the event was “exceptional and extraordinary.”
Spain had recovered more than 92% of its power by 5 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Red Eléctrica, and the prime minister pledged that the entire country of 48 million would have lights back on by the end of the day.
It was the second serious European power outage in less than six weeks after a March 20 fire shut down Heathrow Airport in the U.K., and it came as authorities across Europe gird against sabotage backed by Russia.
The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Center in a statement said there was no sign the outage was due to a cyber attack. Teresa Ribera, European Commission executive vice president in charge of promoting clean energy, indicated the same to journalists in Brussels and called the power outage “one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times.”
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