Spain and Portugal outage LIVE as grid operator claims to know cause of the disruption

More than 35 per cent of Spain’s power capacity has now been restored, the country’s REE electricity operator has said.

REE was meeting ‘35.1 percent of demand’, Eduardo Prieto, REE’s operations director, told Cadena Ser radio.

The company said earlier that power was being ‘progressively’ restored across the country.

Pedro Sanchez is set to speak shortly to provide an update after Spain’s interior ministry declared a state of emergency.

The conference was scheduled to begin at 21:30 local time (20:30 BST), but appears to be delayed.

Power is reportedly beginning to trickle back into the Spanish and Portuguese capitals.

Reuters news agency reports various parts of central Madrid have got electricity back, with some areas of Lisbon following shortly after.

As Spain heads into evening darkness, the interior ministry has said it’s deploying 30,000 police officers to maintain security.

They will be deployed nationwide, the ministry added.

Power appears to be returning in the Spanish capital, within some shops and the metro.

Some rural areas are reporting the power being restored.

Public transport, the trains and metro are still not open to the public but security is gathering at the entrance of Sol metro station for it to be opened soon.

Rural areas north of Madrid have reported the power and Wifi coming back.

A man staying in La Latina, Madrid, told MailOnline telephone and internet has been down since 9m local time.

‘Metros down, traffic chaos, shops shutting for dear of looting,’ John Southgate added.

‘Good community spirit in La Latina area of Madrid – locals listenign to a single radio’.

Spanish power operator Red Electrica has said more than 20 per cent of the country’s affected power capacity has been restored.

Electricity supply is being ‘progressively restored’, the operator says in a post on X.

Some of this supply has been coming from domestic sources and some from France, the post adds.

REN said Monday it had ‘no information’ that the mass power outages that hit the Iberian Peninsula were caused by a cyberattack.

REN board member Joao Conceicao told reporters the operator did not rule out that the blackout was due to a ‘very large oscillation in the electrical voltages, first in the Spanish system, which then spread to the Portuguese system.

‘There could be a thousand and one causes, it’s premature to assess the cause,’ he said, adding that REN was in permanent contact with Spain.

Portugal’s airport operator ANA said it does not expect flights to take off from Lisbon until 10pm local time.

Flights are running from Porto and Faro airports, but with limitations, it added.

Portuguese grid operator REN said it hoped to reestablish the power supply in the country’s second-largest city, Porto, within the next two hours and within five or six hours in the capital, Lisbon.

Spanish operator Red Electrica has been able to restore power to parts of the north and south peninsula.

Red Electrica has revealed that power is now available in parts of the north and south peninsula.

Here are the areas where power has been restored to in parts:

The website of the Portuguese government, portugal.gov.pt, is currently down and displaying an error message which reads: ‘The government portal is currently unavailable. We will try to restore the service soon.’

Spain’s interior ministry has declared a state of emergency after today’s nationwide power blackout.

The ministry added emergency status will be applied in the regions that request it.

Ukraine is offering its assistance to Spain, Portugal, and France following the blackouts.

Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister, said that Kyiv has already been in contact with the three countries to share its ‘extensive experience’ with power outages.

Emergency services carried out 286 rescue operations on Monday to free people trapped inside elevators in Madrid during a nationwide power outage.

‘What we are now dealing with more frequently are cases of people trapped in lifts. We have received 286 requests’ for help, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the head of Madrid’s regional government, said during an interview with Antena 3.

One angry holidaymaker told MailOnline: ‘Totally impossible to get into Lisbon Airport today, passengers sent home with a wave of the hand ! With no electricity, no possibility to use internet to review bookings or receive information from the user airline !

‘As a result of the blackout, for one,  Air France cancelled my flight AF1625 @15h55 today 28/4 and pushed me back to 30/April AF1195 @18h50. This change was done without additional payment, the fault does not lie with Air France.

‘HOWEVER checking possible reservations to come home earlier I was aghast at the one way Air France prices Lisbon to Paris as “punishment” for the inconvenience caused to the airline by stranded passengers !

‘One flight available 29/4 Economy 746€  Business 1107€ as for the following day 30/4 two flights with economy at 943€ or 1012€ Business with a startling 1506€ for a connecting flight through Madrid !

‘I would invite you to have a look under “reservations” of airlines operating out of Lisbon for further surprises.

‘Just imagine the exotic far flung destinations where we readers could fly to for these ridiculous prices !

‘Had it been British AIrways or Easy Jet I’d have complained to the CAA or ABTA.

‘Fingers crossed for return of the electrics !’

A barricade has been spotted blocking the entrance to a supermarket due to the power blackout today in Lleida, Spain.

People have been spotted walking on parts of the roadway as vehicles are in gridlock at Cibeles Square in Madrid during the power outage.

In a supermarket in Madrid, people were stocking up on water, eggs and milk and some shelves have already been left empty.

‘I left work and the power suddenly went and people started buying,’ Joanly Perez, a 33-year-old doctor in Madrid told Reuters. ‘People aren’t sure what might happen and are buying basic essentials, just in case.’

Oliver Ortiz, a 45-year-old butcher, said he too was buying tins of food ‘just in case’.

Spain’s nuclear safety council has said all seven of the country’s nuclear reactors are safe.

Four of them stopped operating automatically once the power cut hit, but emergency generators immediately kicked in.

The other three reactors were not operating at the time, but emergency generators switched on anyway to keep them in a safe condition, the council added.

Sanchez has said that electricity has been restored to some areas in the north and the south of Spain ‘thanks to help from France and Morocco’.

‘We urge you to turn to official channels for information,’ he said, urging people in Spain to avoid failing ‘for disinformation’.

The airline has confirmed that the power blackout is impacting access to some airports and affecting its flight operations in Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona.

‘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,’ EasyJet said in a statement.

It added that despite the chaos, its services at Porto and Faro airports are operating as scheduled.

EasyJet advised passengers to monitor local travel updates and flight trackers for the latest information.

Continuing his address, Sanchez describes telecommunications as being at a critical moment and urges people to use their phones responsibly and only to make brief calls.

He says that digital banking and payment systems are operating normally.

Sanchez added that the National Security Council will also meet again today to evaluate any further measures that may be needed.

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has begun a news conference.

He says there is no conclusive information on what caused the blackout.

He adds that for now, there are no public security issues.

Following the chaotic power outages across Spain, transport minister Oscar Puente took to X to confirm thatair traffic capacity will be reduced.

‘Due to further outages in communications and radar nodes, we will reduce air traffic capacity by 30% in some sectors,’ he wrote.

The nationwide power outage will prevent Spain from restoring inter-city train services on Monday, 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,” Oscar Puente wrote on X.

A top Spanish energy official said blackouts across Spain and Portugal were caused by a ‘very strong oscillation’ in the electrical network.

Eduardo Prieto, director of Spanish transmission system operator Red Eléctrica, said this oscillation led Spain’s power system to ‘disconnect from the European system, and the collapse of the Iberian electricity network’.

But he refused to speculate as to what had caused the power surge and declined to say if a cyberattack could have contributed to the blackout.

An ‘oscillation’ occurs when something disrupts the delicate balance between a grid’s power supply and demand, which causes the frequency of the electricity to swing rapidly up or down.

Maddie Sephton, from London, was on the Madrid Metro when the power outage occurred, told Sky News that she was stuck on a train for 20 minutes before a staff member pried the doors open manually.

‘We got on the train and everything was fine. But then everything went dark,’ she said. Passengers had to climb 15 flights of stairs to get out of the metro.

An ex-pat called Lesley, has lived in Spain for 11 years with her husband, told the BBC that they are concerned about the effects of the outages.

‘We are worried about food, water, cash and petrol in case this goes on for a couple of days,’ she said.

‘My husband is driving around now trying to find a petrol station that’s open to get petrol for the generator so that we can plug in the fridge.’

And a British expat living in Barcelona told MailOnline that ‘nobody seems to know what’s going on’ in Spain ‘because nobody has signal’.

The English teacher said he only found out about the European blackout from British reports.

‘I can get signal on my rooftop, but I can’t get signal down below. One floor down I have nothing,’ they said.

‘The traffic lights are still working… The underground is not working apparently. Lots of parts of the public transport are not working.’

Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica said it has managed to bring large parts of southern, northern and western Spain back online, but added that restoring power fully to the country and neighbouring Portugal could take 6-10 hours.

The state grid operator is still yet to specify the cause of the outages.

Spain’s nuclear power plants automatically stopped when a massive blackout hit, but diesel generators were keeping them in “safe condition”, officials said.

The shutdown of the country’s nuclear plants was “in line with their design” when confronted with an unexpected power outage, the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) said in a statement.

Four reactors at three nuclear power plants were in operation when the outage 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.

Spanish airline Vueling said it was ‘working to minimise the impact’ of the blackouts on their flights in Spain ‘and other markets’ on Monday.

‘Some of our flights may be affected. You can check the status of your flight here. We continue to monitor the situation,’ a statement read.

EU chief Antonio Costa cast doubt on speculation the blackouts sweeping Spain and Portugal were caused by a cyber attack.

Costa said on Monday that ‘at this point, there are no indications of any cyberattack’.

‘Grid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply,’ Costa, who heads the European Council representing EU member states, wrote on X, after being in touch with leaders in Spain and Portugal.

REN, Portugal’s grid operator says that the widespread blackouts over Spain and Portugal have been caused by a ‘rare atmospheric phenomenon’.

The operator says that extreme temperature variations along the grid had led to ‘anomalous oscillations’ in very high-voltage power lines.

This effect, known as ‘induced atmospheric variation’ leads to power oscillations throughout the grid.

This causes the voltage and frequency of some parts of the grid to get out of sync with the rest of the grid.

The differences between the different sections can lead to irregular or excessive power flow to some areas, damaging equipment and triggering widespread power failures.

Fans walk through the dark gangways during a general power blackout during Day Seven of the Mutua Madrid Open at La Caja Magica on April 28, in Madrid

According to REN, these oscillations lead to ‘successive disturbances across the interconnected European network’ which caused today’s blackouts.

Temperature differences lead to oscillations in the grid, primarily due to the sudden imbalance of electricity demand.

When one area on the grid is exceptionally hot, the demand for electricity increases as people turn on air conditioning units to cool their homes.

When the fluctuations between high-demand and low-demand areas are large enough, it can trigger oscillations capable of causing synchronisation issues.

Full restoration of power in Portugal could take as long as a week, the country’s electricity grid operator has warned.

Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) said in a statement that the outages appeared to have been caused by ‘extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain’, leading to ‘anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400kv), a phenomenon known as “induced atmospheric variation”‘.

REN claimed that, ‘due to the complexity of the phenomenon and the need to rebalance electricity flows internationally, it is estimated that full normalisation of the network could take up to a week.’

Spain’s operator said earlier today that restoring power could take between six and ten hours.

People buy goods at a supermarket due to the blackout, in Lisbon, Portugal

Petrol stations are said to have closed across Spain amid the ongoing outages.

Photos from the village of Villabona showed a station closed off to the public during Monday’s blackout.

One reader currently travelling in their motorhome through the Costa Blanca told MailOnline ‘all the petrol stations [were] closed’ when they went to fill up in Torrevieja, south of Alicante.

The Associated Press reported that ‘gas stations stopped working’ in Portugal as hospitals and other emergency services switched to generators.

A closed petrol station in Villabona on April 28, 2025, during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France.

Popular airline Ryanair is monitoring ‘potential disruption’ to flights to and from Spain and Portugal today, amid the ongoing blackouts.

‘Due to a general power outage affecting mainland Spain and Portugal today, Monday, April 28, we are monitoring the potential disruption of flights operating to/from all airports in mainland Spain and Portugal,’ the latest update said.

‘We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused as a result of this power outage, which is beyond our control.’

Panicked customers scrambled to withdraw cash from banks and streets overflowed with crowds trying in vain to get a signal as a Spain-wide power outage plunged the country into chaos on Monday.

Carlos Condori, one of millions of people affected in Spain and Portugal, was travelling on the Madrid metro when the blackout brought his journey to a shuddering halt.

‘The light went out and the carriage stopped,” but the train managed to crawl into the platform, the 19-year-old construction sector worker told the AFP news agency outside a metro station in central Madrid.

‘People were stunned, because this had never happened in Spain,’ he added. ‘There’s no (phone) coverage, I can’t call my family, my parents, nothing: I can’t even go to work.’

At Cibeles Square, one of the Spanish capital’s busiest thoroughfares, the blackout of traffic lights unleashed a cacophony of sirens, whistles and car horns as police tried to control the pile-up of traffic.

Bewildered office workers congregated in streets with their computers made useless without internet, alongside residents were thankful they had not been trapped in lifts.

A disorientated Marina Sierra was trying to contact her dad and improvise a route home to the Madrid suburbs after her school was shut.

‘The building we were in was giving off smoke, they had to evacuate us quickly…. I’m shocked because everything is totally out of control,’ the 16-year-old student said.

Transport chaos also gripped Spain’s second city Barcelona, where locals and tourists alike flooded the streets in a desperate attempt to find out what had happened.

Student Laia Montserrat, who lives one hour outside Barcelona, was in the middle of a presentation when the blackout struck her school and left her in a predicament.

‘As the internet wasn’t coming back, they told us to go home… (but) there weren’t trains either,’ Laia told AFP. ‘Now we don’t know what to do.’

Ukraine said it was ready to assist in restoring energy networks after blackouts hit Spain and Portugal.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galuschenko said on Monday the wartorn nation was in a position to help its European partners, still facing up to 9 hours offline.

‘We are ready to share the knowledge and experience, including those gained during the systematic Russian attacks on the energy infrastructure,’ Galuschenko said in a post on X.

Spanish electricity transmission operator Red Eléctrica said the cause of the outage was not immediately known.

France’s high-voltage grid operator denied reports that a fire in the south of France had caused today’s widespread outages across Europe.

A fire was reported to have occurred on the Alaric mountain, near Narbonne, damaging a high-voltage power line.

European channels suggested this had been identified as a ‘possible cause’.

RTE said there was ‘no impact on the supply-demand balance’ in France.

According to RTE, the Iberian grid was automatically disconnected from the European grid from 12:38 pm to 1:30 pm (1038 GMT to 1130 GMT).

Operators on the continent are still working to establish the cause.

‘A cyber attack has not been ruled out and investigations are ongoing,’ one Spanish official said earlier this afternoon.

The head of operations for Spain’s grid operator Red Electrica said ‘we cannot speculate right now on the causes’ of the countrywide blackout, however.

The president of Madrid’s regional government has asked the Spanish government to pave the way for troops to be deployed to help uphold order if required.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso called on the government to ‘activate Plan 3 so that the Army can maintain order if necessary’.

The Level 3 emergency plan, covering ‘national interest’ emergencies, provides special powers for the central government to take control of major issues beyond the scope of Spain’s autonomous provinces.

A view of urban chaos as a widespread power outage strikes Spain and Portugal around midday Monday while the causes are still unknown in Madrid, Spain on April 28, 2025

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

‘It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It’s still being ascertained,’ Cabinet Minister Leitão Amaro was quoted as saying.

Portuguese distributor E-Redes said the outage was due to ‘a problem with the European electricity system,’ according to Portuguese newspaper Expresso.

The company said it was compelled to cut power in specific areas to stabilise the network, according to Expresso.

The Portuguese Cabinet convened an emergency meeting at the prime minister’s residence, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited power distributor Red Eléctrica to follow efforts at restoring grid operations.

British holidaymakers stuck in Portugal told MailOnline they were left without power during a padel trip in Vale de Lobo.

Mel Halsall, from Ilkley, West Yorkshire, said: ‘It’s our last day and the only thing we can order in a restaurant is beer and biscuits.’

‘They don’t even have water here, just beer!’ she said.

One of the group, Marie, was celebrating her birthday when the power went offline.

Power has been restored in southwestern France, French high-voltage grid operator RTE said, adding it remained unclear what caused the outage.

‘An electrical incident is currently affecting Spain and Portugal, the cause of which remains to be determined,’ RTE said.

‘In France, homes were without power for several minutes in the Basque Country. All power has since been restored.’

Red Eléctrica warned meanwhile that it could take hours for full functionality to resume in Spain.

Eduardo Prieto, director of services for Red Eléctrica’s operations, said at 2:47pm local time the outage was ‘totally extraordinary’ and would take six to ten hours to repair, per El Pais.

A Police car (R) patrols under switched-off traffic lights during a massive power cut, in Madrid on April 28

A dark metro station in Madrid during the widespread power outage that struck Spain and Portugal around midday on Monday

A police officer gestures to organise traffic with the traffic lights off during the massive power cut, in Madrid

Local residents stand outside a closed bar during a massive power cut in Vigo, northwestern Spain, on April 28, 2025

Customers are faced with powerless food stands in Barcelona

A French operator said this afternoon that they have mobilised resources to help ‘restore’ power to the Spanish network.

A British expat living in Barcelona says that ‘nobody seems to know what’s going on’ in Spain ‘because nobody has signal’.

The English teacher, who spoke to MailOnline on condition of anonymity, said it took ‘about an hour to an hour and a half for people to realise’ what was happening.

‘I can get signal on my rooftop, but I can’t get signal down below. One floor down I have nothing,’ he said.

‘Some of the traffic lights are still working … The underground is not working apparently. Lots of parts of the public transport are not working.’

The 32-year-old said that ‘lots of sirens’ could be heard in the streets as the roads fell into chaos.

He added that the power went offline in Barcelona at 12:34pm local time.

Spain has ‘not ruled out’ the possibility that the outages were caused by a cyber attack, an official briefed on the situation told Politico.

‘At this stage there’s no evidence yet regarding the cause of the massive blackout,’ they told the outlet.

‘A cyber attack has not been ruled out and investigations are ongoing.’

Spain’s state electricity network operator Red Electrica said on X that it had managed to restore power in the north and south of the country.

‘We are starting to recover power for the north and south of the peninsula, key to progressively addressing the electricity supply,’ a post read.

The news came about two hours after the first reports of the outages.

Outages have now been reported as far away as Belgium, Euronews reports.

The extent of the blackouts was not immediately clear.

The Spanish government said this afternoon it was allocating all resources to resolving the power crisis, after major cities were knocked offline by blackouts.

It said it was still working to establish the cause of the outages.

The government has convened a crisis meeting at the offices of Red Electrica, El Pais reports.

Spain’s traffic authority, DGT, meanwhile implored citizens not to use their cars unless absolutely necessary.

A view of a bar after a blackout hit Spain in the city of Toledo, central Spain, 28 April 2025.

A view of Madrid as a widespread power outage struck around midday Monday, with the causes still unknown, in Madrid, Spain on April 28, 2025

Parts of France briefly lost power on Monday, following outages in Spain and Portugal, France’s grid operator RTE said.

A fire in the south-west of the country damaged a high-voltage power line and has been identified as a ‘possible cause’, Euronews reports.

The fire was reported to have occurred on the Alaric mountain, near Narbonne.

Residents of Andorra – between France and Spain – also reported having been hit by the blackout.

Officials in Portugal have warned that outages are affecting the country nationwide.

Portugal’s REN operator said all the Iberian peninsula was affected, as well as part of France.

Passengers have been stranded in the metro in Lisbon, waiting for the grid to restore power.

Some trains are still stuck in the tunnels between stations, Euronews Portugal reports.

People have been asked not to dial 112, the European emergency number for contacting police, ambulance, and fire services, unless in a genuine emergency to avoid overloading lines.

Traffic lights in Madrid have stopped working, posing risk on major carriageways.

Footage showed chaos in the capital, with cars in gridlock on Monday as authorities rushed to restore power.

First pictures show Metro stations in Europe in darkness amid the wide power outage.

Rail above ground is also understood to have been affected.

Spanish railway company Renfe said that all trains have halted and no departures are currently taking place, with a power outage occurring at a ‘national level’.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the power outage sweeping Europe.

Spain, France and Portugal were the first reported to have been hit by an outage on Monday.

The cause of the blackout is as yet unknown, and Spain’s national grid is working to restore power.

E-Redes, a Spanish electricity grid monitoring company, said in a statement it was working on reestablishing connection in phases.

‘This is a wider European problem,’ it added.