A widespread power outage has brought large parts of Spain and Portugal to a grinding halt, causing significant disruptions to daily life.
Gatekeepers News reports that the outage, which began around 10:33 GMT, plunged thousands of households and businesses into darkness, with traffic lights stopping working and public transport grinding to a halt.
“We do not yet have conclusive information on the reasons for this (power) cut,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a national address, adding that there had been no signs of any security issues.
Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro also stated that there was “no indication” a cyberattack was the cause.
As the outage took hold, chaos erupted on the streets of Madrid. Traffic lights stopped working, causing gridlock in the city centre. People in reflective vests stood at intersections, directing traffic and trying to restore some semblance of order. The Madrid underground was partially evacuated, and play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended.
In Lisbon, the metro came to a standstill, leaving commuters stranded. ANA, Portugal’s airport operator, warned that flights would be delayed, with limited operations at Porto and Faro airports.
“I just don’t know who to turn to,” said Angeles Alvarez, a worried mother stranded outside Madrid’s Atocha railway station.
“My daughter in Barcelona is giving birth. We’re going to miss the connection to get there.”
Hospitals in Madrid and Catalonia scrambled to respond to the outage, suspending routine medical work but continuing to attend to critical patients using backup generators.
“It’s a challenging situation, but we’re doing our best to ensure patient care is not affected,” said a hospital spokesperson.
As people rushed to stock up on essentials, supermarkets in Madrid reported long queues at tills and empty shelves.
The Bank of Spain reassured customers that electronic banking was functioning “adequately” on backup systems, but some residents reported ATM screens going blank.
Power started returning to parts of the Iberian peninsula late on Monday, with Spain’s power grid operator Red Electrica working to restore power to affected areas.
REN, Portugal’s electricity distributor, prioritized supply resumption to hospitals and transport.
Some reports suggest that the blackout might have been caused by a “very large oscillation in electrical voltage, first in the Spanish system, which then spread to the Portuguese system,” according to REN board member Joao Conceicao.
