Power outages across Spain and Portugal, a nationwide blackout of this scale in Portugal, said a statement from Portuguese energy supplier E-Redes
Portuguese police are reporting that traffic lights are down across the country, according to Reuters, alongside the metro in Lisbon and Porto being shut down and trains not running. Spain and France were affected by a problem in the European electric grid, according to a statement from Portuguese national energy supplier E-Redes. The Basque Coast and the Burgundy region were also affected by the outages, according to the energy supplier.
There was a power outage across the Iberian Peninsula. As of Monday evening, power has been partially restored across the three countries, but large swaths of the region remain without electricity.
A graph on Spain’s electricity network website shows a huge drop in demand at 12:14 pm, from 27,500 to 15,000MW.
As of Monday night REN said that it had restored power to about 750,000 customers in Portugal. Electricity had not yet been restored in Lisbon, the nation’s capital, but REN said service was expected to resume soon.
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 had to cut power to certain areas to maintain the network.
The power outage halted nearly every aspect of daily life for tens of millions of people — disrupting subways, cutting phone service and shutting down traffic lights and ATM machines. Hospitals, nuclear plants, and prisons all had back-up systems in place.
At a press conference on Monday evening, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said a nationwide blackout of this scale had never happened before in Spain.
Earlier on Monday, António Costa, the president of the European Council and former prime minister of Portugal, said on X that there were no signs so far suggesting that a cyber attack was behind the blackout.
Utilities and Outages in Madrid, Spain, and Portugal: State-Fields and Airport Backup Generators reportedly impacted by severe weather
Public transportation, including subways and rail services, was suspended across Spain. Authorities worked to rescue passengers from 116 trains that were stranded on Monday, the country’s transport minister Oscar Puente wrote on X.
Sky News says play has been stopped at the Madrid Open. Madrid’s underground rail system has reportedly been evacuated and traffic lights in the city aren’t operating. Air traffic in Spain and Portugal is also reportedly affected by outages at area airports, with Spanish airport operator Aena saying on X that backup generators are currently active at impacted airports. Emergency services in Madrid run on backup generators.