‘rare atmospheric phenomenon’ caused blackout

Spain’s armed security force and additional police have been put on patrol as the government attempts to prevent public disorder after the power cuts.

Today, 15,000 members of the National Police and 15,000 members of the Guardia Civil have been deployed. Reserve units remain on standby in case their intervention is necessary.

No significant public order incidents have been reported, officials said.

Luis Montenegro, the Portuguese prime minister, said “there was no time to waste” in restoring electricity to the nation after a major power failure.

“We are working together to respond quickly to the power outage that is still affecting the country. We are in constant contact with security forces, civil protection, the armed forces, hospitals and fuel supply companies to ensure response capacity in essential infrastructure and support for those in need,” he wrote.

Montenegro added: “There is no time to waste! Our thanks to everyone who is focused on these priority tasks.”

Portugal’s airport operator has said it does not expect flights to be able to take off from Lisbon until 10 pm.

ANA Aeroportos de Portugal added in a statement that operations continued at both Porto and Faro airports, but with limitations.

Reuters is reporting that power has now been restored to central parts of Madrid.

Gibraltar has been unaffected by the power failure in Spain and Portugal, because the British Overseas Territory is not connected to the European network.

Spain aims to restore power across the nation “soon” after a blackout disrupted daily life for millions, Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, said.

He called on people to show “responsibility and civility” to help authorities manage the crisis that also affected Portugal and France.

Grids in France and Morocco, which are connected with the Spanish network, have already partially restored electricity to parts of northern and southern Spain, Sanchez said in a televised address.

“Combined cycles and hydroelectric plants throughout the country have also been reactivated, which should allow us to recover the supply across Spain soon,” Sanchez said.

“We still must focus on the most important thing: restoring electricity to our homes.”

Portugal’s government said the outage appeared to stem from problems outside the country, an official told the national news agency Lusa.

“It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It’s still being ascertained,” Antonio Leitao Amaro, a cabinet minister, was quoted as saying.

Teresa Ribera, a European Commission executive vice-president, told Spanish journalists that the causes of the Iberian blackout were still being investigated, but that there were no indications of a cyberattack.

Spanish emergency services carried out 286 rescue operations today to free people trapped inside elevators in Madrid after the power failure.

“What we are now dealing with more frequently are cases of people trapped in lifts. We have received 286 requests [for help],” Isabel Díaz Ayuso, head of the regional government, said during an interview with the private television station Antena 3.

One man posted a video on social media saying the blackout trapped him in a lift without coverage for around 40 minutes.

“By hitting the door and shouting, a neighbour heard me and informed the municipal police” who came half an hour later to free him, he said.

By Kaya Burgess, Science Reporter

The Portuguese national grid operator earlier blamed the power failure on “anomalous oscillations” caused by “extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain”.

Prof Chenghong Gu, from the department of electronic and electrical engineering at the University of Bath, said the oscillations, or vibrations, could lead to fluctuations in the amount of voltage being carried by power lines in different places, leaving them out of sync with each other.

He added: “These oscillations reportedly caused ‘synchronisation failures’ between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.

“This is why we are seeing many customers in different parts of the EU grid being cut off — to make sure the whole system can be rebalanced.”

Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, has said the country’s National Security Council will convene again this evening to make any decisions on any further measures needed because of the widespread power outage.

Earlier, after a first meeting of the council, he said there was “no conclusive information about the reasons for this outage”.

Sanchez said no hypothesis could be ruled out, warning the public “not to speculate” because of the risk of “misinformation”.

Large queues are forming in shops in Barcelona as customers are able to pay again by card.

Power has largely been restored to the city, although buses are still overcrowded in places and metro entrances are blocked off by staff and police.

By Fintan Hogan, Barcelona

Locals and tourists in Barcelona flocked to the city’s Bogatell beach in the early afternoon following the loss of power.

Mobile phone networks became intermittent, while bars and restaurants along the strip lost refrigeration and card machine access.

“We’re just serving what we have left,” said one beach bar manager. “It happened in the early afternoon, everything went out.”

Many restaurants across the city closed as lights, lifts and escalators failed. Enormous queues formed for the few functioning ATMs which had other power sources.

The public transport system also faced difficulties, as police stopped people entering the metro system and directed pedestrians across roads where traffic lights had failed.

Portugal’s grid operator earlier said that a “rare” atmospheric event had caused the blackout, but it is still not clear exactly how this may have happened.

Massimo Maoret, professor of strategic management at IESE Business School in Madrid, told The Times that “the Spanish grid is one of the most developed and reliable in the world, so this generalised blackout must have happened due to something extraordinary. If so, it will be interesting to understand if this unique event might be related to climate change, and in this sense potentially become more frequent”.

He added: “I am reading that the blackout might be related to wind hitting high-tension transmission cables — not sure if that’s the cause, but then perhaps moving forward we should think about moving these underground, which tends to be quite expensive. But again, I think at this stage it’s pure speculation, no one really knows.”

The vulnerability of Spain and Portugal’s power networks to a serious incident has been thrown into sharp focus today.

Professor Solomon Brown of energy systems at the University of Sheffield said: “My understanding is that the power systems [of Spain and Portugal] are connected through ‘interconnectors’ in the same way that Scotland and the rest of the GB network are connected, and also GB with other parts of Europe. This means that there is interdependency between the networks but also that they will have to be re-started separately.

He added: “As the two networks have gone down they will have to be re-powered, which means that the grid operator will slowly bring on key generators [to match users’ demand] in regions of the network that slowly expand until the whole system is back on and can then be reconnected to external networks. This process can take a number of hours and may have to be attempted more than once if things don’t go smoothly.”

A nationwide power outage will prevent Spain from restoring inter-city train services, the transport minister said, as the crisis left thousands of passengers stranded.

“Today it is not expected that the circulation of medium and long-distance trains will be restored… We are working so that, once the electricity supply is restored, we can resume those services, which will no longer be possible today,” Óscar Puente wrote on X.

Spain’s electricity grid operator Red Eléctrica reported that service has recovered in areas of Catalonia, Aragon, Basque Country, Galicia, Asturias, Navarre, Castilla y Léon, Extremadura and Andalusia.

It continues, it said, to work with the energy companies to recover the service in the whole peninsular territory.

Today’s blackout was one of the biggest in recent European history.

Data from the Spanish electricity grid operator showed that more than 10GW of power was cut off when the blackout hit after noon local time.

Eduardo Prieto, director of services at Red Eléctrica, said at 12.38pm “a very strong oscillation in the power flows” of the networks had been detected. This has led to the disconnection of the Spanish electricity system from the European one, which is based on a connection with France.

This disconnection, explained Prieto, “led to the collapse” of the system and the consequent general blackout.

The internet monitoring site NetBlocks said the blackout caused a “loss of much of the country’s digital infrastructure”. Online connections fell sharply to just 17 per cent of normal usage levels.

Spain’s nuclear power plants were kept in a “safe condition” by back-up diesel generators after the power cut caused them to switch off, officials said.

The power stations are designed to shut down when confronted with an unexpected power failure, the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) said in a statement.

Four reactors at three nuclear plants were in operation when the power cut struck and immediately went offline.

Reactors at two other nuclear plants were already stopped before the blackout and generators were also maintaining basic functions safely, the CSN said.

Electricity has returned to parts of northern, southern and western Spain, the national grid operator has said.

Red Eléctrica said in a statement: “Tension has now been restored in substations in several areas of the north, south and west of the peninsula, beginning to give supply to consumers in these areas.”

Experts have warned that it could take time to completely restore power to all affected areas, and that it is likely to come back on in phases.

Sources in the southern region of Andalusia have confirmed the reports but told Europe Press that the “the percentage of the territory that has regained electricity supply is unknown”.

By Stuart Fraser, Tennis Correspondent

The Madrid Open tennis championships were among the events plunged into darkness and disrupted by the power cuts on Monday.

The power dropped just as the American star Coco Gauff was conducting a post-match interview after beating Belinda Bencic on the Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario Stadium.

Fans were left to use phone torches to navigate the pitch-black underground staircases of the Caja Magica, the tournament venue, while participants ate lunch by candlelight in the players’ restaurant.
Britain’s Jacob Fearnley was among several players to have their matches suspended.

Read in full: Power cut chaos stops play at Madrid Open

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative leader of the Madrid regional government, called on Spain’s Socialist-led national administration to activate emergency plans “to allow the army to keep order, if necessary”.

“We are all the same, we are all receiving information in bits and pieces,” she said.

EasyJet is suffering “some disruption” to its flying programme as a result of the power failure. It is a similar picture with other airlines including British Airways and Ryanair.

“Power outages in Portugal and Spain are impacting access to some airports and affecting some airports operations including Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona,” easyJet said in a statement.

“Like all airlines, we are experiencing some disruption to our flying programme meaning that some return flights from Lisbon and Madrid have been unable to operate.

“Our flying programme at Porto and Faro airports is operating as planned.”

Passengers in Spain or Portugal who are unable to travel can change their flight free of charge to depart within 72 hours, or claim a flight voucher.

Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, said that “at this point, there are no indications of any cyberattack” that might have caused the blackouts.

“Grid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply,” Costa wrote on X, after being in touch with leaders in Spain and Portugal.

Luis Montenegro, the Portuguese prime minister, told reporters that he expected electrical power to be restored “in the coming hours” after widespread outages hit most of the Iberian peninsula.

He added that there was “no indication” that a cyberattack was the cause of the blackout.

The Portuguese grid operator said a rare atmospheric phenomenon in Spain caused the power outages across the Iberian peninsula.

Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) said extreme temperature variations had caused “anomalous oscillations” in the very high voltage lines in the Spanish grid, known as “induced atmospheric vibration”.

The operator also warned that fully restoring the country’s power grid could take up to a week.

“At this time it is still impossible to predict when the situation will be normalised,” REN said in a statement, adding it had “all resources deployed” to resolve the blackout.

The Foreign Office has updated its Spanish travel advice pages and is warning Britons of travel disruption across the region.

The advice reads: “We are aware of reports of power outages across Andorra, mainland Spain and mainland Portugal and are monitoring the situation.

“There may be travel disruption, check with your tour operator or airline for more information before travelling. Follow the advice of the local authorities and monitor local updates.”

Spain is the UK’s most popular holiday destination with about 17 million visits each year.

Tap Air Portugal has told passengers not to travel to the country’s airports until further notice.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the airline said: “Due to the power cut in several European countries, the operation of airports is temporarily very limited. TAP requests that you do not go to the airport until further information.”

It is being reported that the blackout was caused by a “very strong oscillation in the electrical network”.

Eduardo Prieto, director of Red Eléctrica, the Spanish electricity grid operator, said the “oscillation” led to “the collapse of the Iberian electricity network at 12.38pm”.

Prieto refused to speculate on what caused the power surge and declined to say if a cyberattack was responsible.

The system operator is working to restore power across the network, but warned this could take between six and ten hours in some parts of the country. Widespread regional travel disruption is expected to last until Tuesday.

Portugal’s cybersecurity watchdog has said that “no evidence has been identified to date that points to a cyberattack” as the cause of the blackout that is affecting the Iberian peninsula.

In a statement, the National Cybersecurity Centre said: “After contacting the relevant entities, it was found that this is a failure that affected some European countries. We are in contact with our counterparts in these countries and with the relevant national entities.

“No evidence has been identified to date that points to a cyberattack. We draw attention to the circulation of misinformation that occurs in these situations, so we advise consulting or confirming information with reliable sources.”

Rescue workers have been attempting to evacuate passengers who became stuck on trains after the power failed.

One high speed train between Seville had been heading towards Barcelona when it was halted in the countryside outside Zaragoza. Passengers reported being stationary for two and half hours with no electricity, wifi or air conditioning.

Firefighters who boarded the train said the priority was to open all the doors to ventilate the train, while avoiding a panicked rush by passengers to escape, as they tried to arrange an organised evacuation.

“We opened the doors to help ventilate the train for the young and old,” Ruben Sole, 36, a firefighter, said. “I’ve never seen this [the power cut] before on a train like this — it happens in cities but not on the train.”

Experts said hospitals and other vital infrastructure should have back-up systems to avoid catastrophe. However the knock-on effects from the power cuts could get worse the longer they continue.

Dr Rowena Hill, professor of resilience, emergencies and disaster science at Nottingham Trent University, said: “If the electricity is out across the board, there are further implications the longer things go on. Not being able to get cash, not being able to process transactions, not being able to get fuel, the electricity might also ink to water or sewerage pumps and so that has a consequence for the younger and older populations quite quickly.

“But immediate thoughts are for those who have care support in the community that is electricity dependent. The acute health points are likely to have backup generators.”

Part of France was also affected “for a few minutes in the Basque Country”, French television reported.

Homes “were deprived of power” but “all power has since been restored“ , according to RTE, France’s transmission system operator, which is mobilising to “provide assistance”to its Spanish neighbour.

Portugal’s minister for national defence, Nuno Melo, has appealed for people to remain calm and said that the causes of the power failure are not yet known.

There have been some reports of panic buying at Spanish and Portuguese supermarkets due to the cuts, which appear to have left some homes without running water, if they are usually supplied by electric pumps.

Ben Lambert, a British expatriate based near Lisbon, said that there were “huge queues” at his local supermarket as people rushed to buy pasta, tins of food and long life milk.

“The water had sold out within an hour,” he said. “Many local supermarkets are shut — but I was able to find one that has a generator.”

Vasco Carou, 36, a builder who lives outside Lisbon, had also gone out to pick up supplies.

He said: “I think the panic is starting to set in because people remember the times when they had to stockpile in the pandemic. The fear here is real. Everyone is afraid.”

Madrid’s mayor has called on all residents to stay at home and avoid travel.

“I ask all residents of Madrid to keep their movements to an absolute minimum and, if at all possible, to remain where they are. We want to keep all roads clear,” Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said.

He also urged residents to only call emergency services if it is “truly urgent” and said they should go to police and fire stations in person if calls go unanswered.

In the wake of the power cuts heavy congestion has been reported in major cities, while crowds of people have gathered at airports and train stations, after routes were cancelled.

There have been reports of people being stuck inside lifts or stranded on trains after power supplies failed.

Landing restrictions introduced at big airports in Spain and Portugal will affect hundreds of flights to and from the UK.

FlightRadar24, the tracking website, reported that Lisbon will have no arrivals until 5.30pm local time (4.30pm UK). There will be a reduced landing rate afterwards.

There are also reduced landings at Barcelona and Madrid airports.

Cirium, the aviation analysts, reported that there are 399 scheduled departures from UK airports to Spain — equating to over 75,000 seats — for Monday. There are 105 departures from UK airports to Portugal, equating to just under 20,000 seats.

Aena, which operates dozens of airports in Spain, advised travellers to “check with your airline, as there may be issues with access and ground transportation”.

Spain’s government said it was investigating the cause, but urged residents to remain at home to avoid traffic chaos.

“The government is working to identify the origin of this incident and dedicating all possible resources to resolve it as quickly as possible,” the office the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said.

Videos on social media showed confusion and congestion on the roads after traffic lights in major cities such as Madrid failed. Thousands of travellers at trains and at airports have been affected.

Hospital services are reported to be reduced to “basic”.

Spain’s Red Eléctrica said the blackout was “exceptional and totally extraordinary” and could take six to ten hours to repair.

According to Red Eléctrica, from 1pm onwards, voltage began to be restored in the north and south of Spain, which it said would help to progressively restore the electricity supply nationwide.

In Portugal, the blackout is also widespread. The government said the incident appeared to stem from problems outside the country.