A widespread and unprecedented power outage swept across Spain and Portugal on late Monday morning, plunging millions into darkness, paralyzing transportation systems, and triggering major disruptions at airports and hospitals. Authorities now believe that possibly a rare atmospheric phenomenon, such as extreme temperature variations in Spain, led to massive electrical oscillations and synchronization failures across the Iberian Peninsula’s interconnected power grid.
Portuguese grid operator REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais) reported that the anomaly, known as “induced atmospheric vibration,” affected 400kV high-voltage lines. This caused cascading failures across both countries’ networks and briefly impacted parts of southern France as well. As of Monday afternoon local time, Spain’s Red Eléctrica estimated that it could take between six to ten hours to fully restore power, while REN warned that, in Portugal, it may take up to one week to restore the entire network back to normal due to the complexity of rebalancing electricity flows.
Investigations Are Still Ongoing
European officials, including the European Commission and the European Council president Antonio Costa, emphasized that there is no evidence that the outage was caused by a cyberattack, although investigations are ongoing. Costa remains in direct contact with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro as technical teams work urgently to stabilize the situation.
The blackout brought everyday life to a grinding halt. Traffic lights failed and resulted in chaotic gridlock across major cities like Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Porto. In Madrid, people poured onto the streets from darkened office buildings as police directed the disorderly traffic and helicopters buzzed overhead. Hospitals across both countries had to rely on emergency generators, while Portugal’s National Institute for Medical Emergencies activated its full contingency plans to keep critical communications operational.
Public transport systems were heavily impacted, with metro services suspended, passengers trapped underground, and trains grinding to a halt. Major airports struggled to operate on backup power. Lisbon and Porto airports warned of operational constraints, while TAP Air Portugal advised passengers to stay home until further notice. Departures were delayed or canceled at major hubs, including Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport and Barcelona’s El Prat Airport.
Ordinary Life Disrupted
At the Madrid Open tennis tournament, matches were suspended mid-play as scoreboards went dark and cameras lost power. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens recounted surreal scenes—such as customers having to leave barbershops mid-haircut due to the abrupt loss of electricity or being unable to pay for groceries as the scanning devices stopped working in the middle of the transactions.
This large-scale power failure is one of the most significant in Europe since Italy’s 2003 blackout. The governments of Spain and Portugal have activated crisis committees to coordinate the ongoing response, and European institutions remain in close contact to support the recovery efforts.
