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Spain and parts of Portugal and France were hit by a huge power cut on Monday that paralysed transport networks and disrupted mobile communications, with authorities warning it could continue into the evening.
Local media said authorities were studying whether a cyber attack had caused the outage, which immobilised the rail system, delayed flights and made traffic lights go dark.
Data from the Spanish electricity operator showed that more than 10GW of demand was cut off when the blackout hit after noon local time, suggesting that it was one of the biggest in recent European history.
The operator, Red Eléctrica, said it had activated plans to restore supply in co-operation with businesses in the sector. In a message on X, it said it was looking for the cause of the incident.
It subsequently said that it was recovering voltage in the north, south and west of the peninsula, which it said was key to gradually restoring energy supply. But it cautioned that restoring full power would take between six and 10 hours.
By mid-afternoon, all of the country’s nuclear power stations remained offline, according to Montel, the energy data specialist, as they sought to respond to the disruption.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez held a crisis meeting with top government officials as local media reported that the Spanish national cyber security institute was investigating whether the outage was due to a cyber attack.
The outage affected millions of people across Spain in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, while Portuguese media reported that the country’s grid operator said the cut had hit electricity supply across the Iberian peninsula as a whole.
Spain’s chief traffic authority called on people not to drive their cars, because traffic lights were out of operation due to the cut. Renfe, the country’s main train operator, said all services had been suspended.
In Madrid, people spilled out on to the streets, as metro stations were evacuated and shops, restaurants and offices closed. Mobile phone coverage was also initially hit. Local media said some — but not all — hospitals were functioning as normal with the aid of backup generators.
More than 300 flights were delayed at Madrid airport as of mid-afternoon, including nearly half of scheduled departures, while at Lisbon airport, 159 flights were delayed and 92 flights cancelled.
Aena, which runs Madrid airport and 45 others across Spain, said it was relying on backup power supplies to operate, adding that the extent of the delays would depend on whether crews and passengers could get to the airports.
Spain gets 43 per cent of its electricity from wind and solar power, but grid and storage capacity has not kept pace with the country’s rapid development of renewable energy.
French grid operator RTE said parts of France had been briefly affected by the outage but that power had been quickly restored.
It added that the Iberian peninsula’s power grid was automatically disconnected from the main continental European network at 12.38pm but was reconnected an hour later.
RTE said it did not know the origin of the outage but was attempting to support the Iberian peninsula in restoring power. It believes the outage originated in the Iberian peninsula, not in France.
Parts of the Spanish national grid’s website were down on Monday. The company describes itself as the “backbone of the electricity system”.
The European Commission said it was in contact with Spain, Portugal and Europe’s grid operators “to understand the underlying cause and the impact of the situation”.
Additional reporting by Philip Georgiadis and Andy Bounds
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