Electricity nearly restored across Spain, Portugal after major blackout

The power was restored across most of Spain and Portugal on Tuesday after the major blackout on Monday.

“99.95% of demand has been restored,” Spanish energy provider Red Electrica announced on Tuesday on X, as they continue to “fully normalize” the system.

Portuguese electricity distribution network operator E-Redes also affirmed that the service has been fully restored and normalized on Tuesday, according to Publico.

As both Spain and Portugal try to return to normal, Portuguese government scheduled a new Council of Ministers for Tuesday morning.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is also expected to hold a Natural Security Council chaired by the Spanish King Felipe VI, according to El Pais.

The electricity went out across Portugal, Spain and Andorra around midday Monday, also affecting parts of France as authorities are still investigating the causes of the outage.

“At 12:33 this morning, 15 gigawatts of generation were suddenly lost from the system—in just five seconds. This is something that has never occurred before,” Spanish Premier Sanchez said during a media briefing on late Monday.

Highlighting that the reason is yet to determined, he noted that “no hypothesis or possibility is being ruled out,” as the causes are analyzed.

Spanish energy provider Red Electrica also stated that the outage was “exceptional and totally extraordinary.”

Meanwhile, Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said on Monday night that the origin of the blackout was not related to Portuguese grid, pointing out Spain as the place where it began, according to Publico.

“It is related to an abrupt increase in voltage in the Spanish electricity grid, the origin of which we are unable to explain. We know that it was the increase in this voltage that triggered the safety mechanisms that led to this blackout. We will calmly assess with the Spanish authorities what happened and try to design better response instruments,” Montenegro added.

Portugal's grid operator REN also supported this claim, stressing that the blackout was a result of a "fault in the Spanish electricity grid" which was related to a "rare atmospheric phenomenon."

"Extreme temperature variations in Spain contributed to the outage," REN officials further said.

Possibility of a cyberattack was not confirmed at the time by Spanish and Portuguese premiers along with European Council President Antonio Costa, underlining that there were “no indications” of any cyberattack.