{"id":191874,"date":"2025-06-17T14:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T14:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/191874\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T14:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T14:25:11","slug":"cause-of-massive-power-cut-that-plunged-spain-and-portugal-into-chaos-revealed-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/191874\/","title":{"rendered":"Cause of massive power cut that plunged Spain and Portugal into chaos revealed | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The massive power cut that plunged huge swathes of Spain and Portugal into chaos earlier this year was caused by a miscalculation, the Spanish government has said.<\/p>\n<p>Airports, trains and internet were among the services <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/power-returning-in-spain-and-portugal-after-large-parts-hit-by-blackout-but-what-caused-it-13357374\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">affected by the blackout in late April<\/a><\/strong>, with traffic lights also down &#8211; causing huge tailbacks.<\/p>\n<p>Millions of people were affected and parts of the two countries were brought to a standstill as authorities raced to find the source of the problem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-site-video__accessibility-message\" data-role=\"accessibility-message\">Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/skynews-ashna-hurynag-spain_6900767.jpg\" alt=\"Ashna Hurynag reports from Madrid on power cuts which affected Spain and Portugal\"  aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                3:20<\/p>\n<p>              <video id=\"id_e49b31da-ba64-4bea-b875-96f0eb9b1297\" data-embed=\"default\" data-application-id=\"\" class=\"video-js sdc-site-video__tag\" controls=\"\" playsinline=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>              Spain and Portugal power cuts: What happened?<\/p>\n<p>There was discussion about whether a cyberattack was to blame, but today Spain&#8217;s energy minister said the issue was a miscalculation by the Spanish power grid operator REE.<\/p>\n<p>Sara Aagesen said REE did not have enough thermal power stations switched on during peak hours of April 28 when the surge caused a chain reaction leading to the power outage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The system did not have sufficient dynamic voltage control capacity,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/skynews-transmission-tower_6899780.jpg\"   alt=\"A view shows a transmission tower during a power outage, near Barcelona, Spain.&#13;&#10;Pic: Reuters\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        The power blackout was caused by a miscalculation, a report found. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/air-india-flight-from-ahmedabad-to-london-cancelled-days-after-fatal-crash-13384826\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London cancelled<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/suspect-in-shooting-of-minnesota-politicians-captured-after-manhunt-13383911\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Assassination suspect captured after two-day manhunt<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The government report, which was due to be made public on Tuesday, found that some of the power plants required by law to regulate the grid&#8217;s voltage failed to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Electricity grids in Europe are kept at 50 Hertz frequency in order to maintain stability &#8211; and even a slight deviation can lead to damage.<\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/download-app\" target=\"blank\" data-tracking-label=\"ui-app-promo-download-link\" class=\"ui-app-promo sdc-article-widget\" data-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"ui-app-promo\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Power plants &#8220;should have controlled voltage and, moreover, many of them were economically remunerated to do so. They did not absorb all the reactive power that was expected in a context of high voltages,&#8221; Ms Aagesen said.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation found no evidence of a cyberattack, she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The massive power cut that plunged huge swathes of Spain and Portugal into chaos earlier this year was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-191874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114699169004583807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}