Massive Power Outage As Spain Grapples In The Dark

At 12.30pm today, Monday 28th April, a massive power outage swept across Spain and Portugal. Within seconds, Spain’s electricity grid experienced a dramatic loss of demand from 26GW to just 12GW.

Electricity was knocked out across mainland Spain and significant areas of Portugal – including Madrid, Barcelona and all major cities in the country as well as Portugal. .

In response, Spain’s interior ministry announced a state of emergency, to be implemented in regions that requested assistance. The Community of Madrid, Andalusia, and Extremadura called on the central government to assume control over public order and other critical functions.

In Madrid and other cities across Spain and Portugal, anxious crowds rushed to ATMs to withdraw cash, while streets filled with people desperately searching for mobile signal. Taxi and bus queues grew long as transport systems faltered.

With traffic lights out of service, police faced enormous challenges managing the resulting gridlock, and authorities urged residents to avoid driving wherever possible.

Madrid’s regional government reported that 286 rescue operations were conducted to free individuals trapped in elevators.

Telecommunications networks also buckled under the strain, disrupting major mobile phone services. Almost nine hours after the initial outage, Spain’s transport minister revealed that 11 trains were still stuck on the tracks with passengers aboard.

Cash became king again, as card payment systems and electronic till registers ceased functioning. Shopkeepers resorted to calculating totals on mobile phones – if their devices still had enough battery life.

Spain’s interior ministry said it had deployed around 30,000 police officers to manage the crisis.

Major railway stations in cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia and Seville remained open throughout the night to shelter stranded travellers.

Spain’s nuclear reactors shut down automatically as a precaution, according to the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), with diesel generators keeping the plants in a ‘safe condition’.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the blackout as causing ‘serious disruption’ for millions of people and leading to ‘economic losses in businesses, in companies, in industries’.

The European Commission confirmed it was in communication with authorities in Spain and Portugal. European Council President Antonio Costa posted on X: ‘There are no indications of any cyberattack.’

Meanwhile, Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro suggested the root cause of the outage was ‘probably in Spain’. However, Spain’s Sánchez stressed that ‘all the potential causes’ were under investigation and cautioned against ‘speculation’ to prevent ‘misinformation’.

The blackout’s effects briefly extended into southwestern France, while Morocco experienced some disruptions to internet providers and airport check-in services.

On Monday evening, Sánchez called for the public to use mobile phones ‘responsibly’, stressing the importance of preserving communications during this critical moment. He urged people to keep calls short and limit usage to essential matters. He also reiterated that authorities were investigating the sudden failure of electricity generation.

‘It had never happened before … All the resources of the state are being mobilised from minute one,’ Sánchez said.

To date power has been restored to most of the country though pockets remain and mobile phone coverage remains patchy in some areas.

The government has ruled out a cyber attack but the cause of the outage is still unknown and being investigated.