We rarely think about how essential and reliable electricity grids are until they fail. Today Spain, Portugal and parts of France hit by massive power outage. A nationwide power outage hit Spain and Portugal on Monday, leaving millions without electricity. In Portugal, official sources told domestic media that the outage, which hit around late morning local time, was nationwide, while similar reports emerged from Spain. Residents of Andorra and parts of France bordering Spain were also reporting being hit by the blackout. Further outages have been reported as far as Belgium.
The huge power outage on Monday brought large parts of the Iberian peninsula to a standstill, grounding planes, halting public transport, and leaving the two countries scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.
Widespread outage hits transport and communication networks with buildings plunged into darkness across swathes of the Iberian peninsula. Madrid’s Barajas International Airport and Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado were closed after being left without power, and telecommunications have also been affected, including no access to mobile networks and many stores and taxis in Madrid were no longer accepting electronic payments. Also other airports have come to a standstill and many flights have been canceled. Numerous passengers have also been left stranded in the metro systems of the Spanish and Portuguese capitals, with trains stuck in tunnels between stations. A blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill Monday, halting subway and railway trains, cutting phone service and shutting down traffic lights and ATMs for millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula.
Major events, including tennis’ Madrid Open, were also affected. Several Spanish oil refineries were shut down and some retail businesses closed. Many workers were forced to leave their posts in Spain and Portugal on Monday after a major power cut affected phone lines, internet access, card payments, and left citizens without light. Essentially, the Spanish economy is shut down for the day.
Restoring power takes time
Several countries in Europe have been scrambling to restore electricity after a huge power cut caused blackouts. By Monday afternoon, Red Eléctrica stated that it had begun gradually restoring power in both the north and south of Spain. Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica said that restoring power fully to the country and neighboring Portugal could take 6-10 hours. Sánchez thanked the governments of France and Morocco, where energy was being pulled from to restore power to north and southern Spain. REN said that the full restoration of the country’s electricity grid could take up to a week, but that it was “impossible” to tell for sure.
What caused the problem?
The cause is yet unclear. No “definitive reasons” have been found for a major power outage. There is no conclusive information on what caused the power outage that has affected Spain, Portugal and parts of France. Endesa and Iberdrola, Spain’s two major electricity providers, continue to investigate the incident. “Such a widespread grid failure is extremely unusual and could be caused by a number of things: there could be a physical fault in the grid which brings down power, a coordinated cyber attack could be behind it, or a dramatic imbalance between demand and supply has tipped the grid system over the edge,” Taco Engelaar, managing director at energy infrastructure experts Neara told Euronews. Today lots of these systems are connected and share assets – taking down one could take down many.
Reports indicate issues with the European electric grid. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that a problem in the European grid that he described as a “strong oscillation” was behind the outage, but that the cause was still being determined.
A fire in the south-west of France, on the Alaric mountain, which damaged a high-voltage power line between Perpignan and eastern Narbonne, has also been identified as a possible cause. Reports on a rare atmospheric phenomenon which have also been circulating have been denied by REN.
Meanwhile, the Spanish National Intelligence Centre has not ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack, while the Portuguese government has also suggested the same. On the other hand The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Center issued a statement saying there was no sign the outage was due to a cyberattack. “no evidence has yet been identified that points to a cyberattack” In the backdrop of unsubstantiated rumours flying around social media, the European Council said there were no indications the power outage was caused by a cyber attack.
The European Commission issued a statement on Monday afternoon, saying it was “in contact with the national authorities of Spain and Portugal as well as (European electricity transmission system operators’ network) ENTSO-E to understand the underlying cause and the impact of the situation.”
The EU has identified building up its power grid as an essential, and somewhat neglected, element in its efforts to move away from fossil fuels and cut energy bills – but it is also waking up to the need to prepare for attacks by hostile powers.
Live update pages:
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/power-outages-blackout-spain-portugal-04-28-25/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c9wpq8xrvd9t
Sources:
https://apnews.com/article/spain-portugal-power-outage-electricity-b0c5fbca49b8422248c4f933e20303b3
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/04/28/spain-portugal-and-parts-of-france-hit-by-massive-power-outage
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/27/europe-prepares-for-attacks-on-power-grid-while-battling-soaring-energy-prices
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/power-outages-blackout-spain-portugal-04-28-25/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/28/spain-and-portugal-power-outage-cause-cyber-attack-electricity
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/live/spain-portugal-power-outage-live-updates-113612434.html
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/c38b4db7-a2c7-43ca-8ee8-ce4587bac995
34 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uutta tietoa Lounais-Euroopan sähkökatkosta
Lounais-Euroopassa oli maanantaina massiivinen sähkökatko, joka jatkuu osittain.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/c38b4db7-a2c7-43ca-8ee8-ce4587bac995
Espanja, suuri osa Portugalista, Andorrasta sekä osa Ranskasta jäivät ilman sähköä maanantaina.
Massiivisen sähkökatkon syytä selvitetään edelleen. Tämänhetkisten tietojen mukaan katkos on yhteydessä häiriöön Espanjan ja Ranskan välillä.
Sähkönsyöttö putosi yhtäkkiä Ranskan ja Espanjan välisessä verkkoyhteydessä maanantaina, mikä sai maiden välisen yhteyden kaatumaan, espanjalainen sähköverkkoyhtiö REE sanoo uutistoimisto Reutersin mukaan.
Espanjan sähköverkosta katosi jostain syystä 15 gigawatin eli noin 15 000 megawatin edestä tehoa viiden sekunnin aikaikkunassa. Näin tiedotti Espanjan energiaministeriö. Ministeriö ei selventänyt, mistä tehon katoaminen johtui.
REE:n mukaan pudotus oli niin massiivinen, ettei eurooppalaisia järjestelmiä ole suunniteltu kestämään sellaista. Tällöin Espanjan ja Ranskan välinen verkkoyhteys katkesi, mikä puolestaan johti Espanjan sähköverkon kaatumiseen.
Espanjan putoaminen on todennäköisesti yksi tekijä sähkökatkon taustalla, mutta se ei selitä kaikkea, Kristian Ruby Euroopan sähköteollisuutta edustavasta Eurelectricistä arvioi Britannian yleisradioyhtiö BBC:lle.
– Erityisen teknisen ongelman takia Espanjan sähköverkko putosi laajemmasta eurooppalaisesta verkosta, Ruby kommentoi BBC:n mukaan.
– Ei ajattelisi, että se aiheuttaisi sähkökatkon koko Iberian niemimaalla, joten arvioni mukaan tässä yhtälössä on todennäköisesti ollut muitakin elementtejä, jotka ovat aiheuttaneet tämän tilanteen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why did the lights go out in Spain and Portugal?
And what does it mean for Europe, its power grids and its electricity?
https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-portugal-power-blackouts-energy-electricity/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spain and Portugal scramble to restore power as officials chase cause of outage
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6jenl581vo
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kanariansaaret hälytystilassa
Länsi-Eurooppaa vaivannut laaja sähkökatko sai varoituskellot soimaan Kanariansaarilla.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/b2000ef2-f7cc-4efe-85ee-e33bfd2d8311
Manner-Espanjaa ja Portugalia vaivannut erittäin laaja sähkökatko saattaa aiheuttaa ongelmia myös Kanariansaarille vietävien perustarvikkeiden kuljetuksiin, kertoo Canarian Weekly.
Paikallisviranomaiset ovat julistaneet Kanariansaaret tapahtuneen takia hälytystilaan ja saariston alueellinen pelastuspalvelun hätäsuunnitelma on otettu käyttöön.
Viranomaisten mukaan hätäsuunnitelman käyttöönotolla pyritään seuraamaan tarkasti sähkökatkojen vaikutuksia kriittisten tarvikkeiden ja palvelujen toimituksiin.
Manner-Espanjaa, suurta osaa Portugalia, Andorraa ja osaa Ranskasta vaivannut laaja sähkökatko ei koskenut Kanariansaarten omaa eristettyä energiajärjestelmää, mutta Canarian Weeklyn mukaan heijastevaikutukset tuntuvat myös saaristossa.
Muun muassa jotkin alueen televiestintäpalvelut ovat kärsineet katkoista, Espanjan pääkaupunki Madridin ja saariston väliset lennot ovat myöhästyneet ja Kanariansaarten suurimman saaren Teneriffan raitiovaunulippujärjestelmässä on ollut ongelmia.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/large-parts-spain-portugal-hit-by-power-outage-2025-04-28/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/world/europe/spain-portugal-power-outage-what-we-know.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The cause remains under investigation.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said that officials were still investigating the causes of the outage.
Portugal’s national energy supplier, E-Redes, cited an unspecified “problem in the European electricity grid.”
António Leitão Amaro, a senior official in the Portuguese government, said there was no evidence of a cyberattack. REN, the Portuguese electricity and gas supplier, denied reports that an unspecified “atmospheric phenomenon” was to blame.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/world/europe/spain-portugal-power-outage-what-we-know.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
How the April 28, 2025, power outage in Portugal and Spain impacted Internet traffic and connectivity
https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-power-outage-in-portugal-spain-impacted-internet/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analyysi: Laaja sähkökatko pelästytti espanjalaiset
Sähkökatko muistutti espanjalaisia, etteivät hekään ole syrjässä maailman kriiseiltä, kirjoittaa Ylen Espanjan-toimittaja Maija Salmi.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20158591
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sähköt ovat palanneet Espanjaan lähes kokonaan – ihmiset ottivat katkosta myös ilon irti, kertoo Ylen Espanjan-toimittaja
Sähköt ovat palanneet myös Portugaliin.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20158613
Tomi Engdahl says:
Valtava sähkökatko olisi mahdollinen meilläkin – näin suomalaiset asiantuntijat arvioivat poikkeuksellisia häiriöitä
Suomen sähköverkko kestää yhden vian kerrallaan, mutta jos niitä tulee monia peräkkäin, järjestelmä voi pettää.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20158594
Iberian niemimaan sähkökatkon syynä saattoi olla voimakas ilmakehän lämpötilanvaihtelu. Se olisi saanut aikaan sähköverkkoon vaikuttanutta värähtelyä, kertoo Portugalin sähköverkkoyhtiö.
Espanjalaiset eivät vielä osaa ottaa kantaa syyhyn.
Johtaja Tuomas Rauhala Fingridistä sanoo, että tapauksesta tarvitaan lisää tietoa.
– Ylätasolla voisi todeta, että kyseessä on varmaan useamman lähes yhtäaikaisen vian seurauksena syntynyt häiriö, jota järjestelmä ei tässä kyseisessä tilanteessa kestänyt.
Hänen mukaansa sähköverkot mitoitetaan siten, että järjestelmä kestää aina minkä tahansa yhden vikatapahtuman tai tyypillisiä useamman vian tapahtumaketjuja. Käytännössä mitään sähköjärjestelmää ei ole mielekästä rakentaa kestämään mitä tahansa yhtäaikaisia vikoja.
– Poikkeuksellisten, epätodennäköisten vikojen yhteydessä voi olla niin, että osa sähköjärjestelmää tai koko -järjestelmä voi lopulta vikaantua.
Rauhalan mukaan onni onnettomuudessa oli, ettei häiriö levinnyt laajemmin muualle Eurooppaan. Nyt muu Eurooppa voi antaa sähköä Iberian niemimaalle.
Mahdollista Suomessakin
Fingridin valvomopäällikkö Arto Pahkin sanoo, että Suomessakin voisi koko sähköjärjestelmä kaatua. Viimeksi niin kävi vuosina 1974 ja 1975.
Suomen sähköverkko kestää yhden vian kerrallaan, mutta jos niitä tulee monia peräkkäin, järjestelmä voi pettää.
Jos koko kantaverkko pettäisi, vika saataisiin korjattua osittain 6–7 tunnissa. Koko järjestelmän palauttamiseen menisi noin vuorokausi.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Rare atmospheric phenomenon’ Portugal’s grid operator Ren claimed the outage was caused by a fault in the Spanish electricity grid, related to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon”. Ren says that, due to extreme temperature variations in Spain, there were “anomalous oscillations” in very high-voltage lines.
Power returning in Spain and Portugal after large parts hit by blackout – but what caused it?
Airports, trains and internet and mobile coverage were among the services affected by the blackout – with traffic lights also down.
https://news.sky.com/story/power-returning-in-spain-and-portugal-after-large-parts-hit-by-blackout-but-what-caused-it-13357374
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why did Spain’s power go out?
Spain’s grid operator REE blamed a connection failure with France for triggering a knock-on effect.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/large-parts-spain-portugal-hit-by-power-outage-2025-04-28/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spain’s national cybersecurity office stated that it had gathered evidence suggesting the power outage could be the result of a cyberattack, but this claim has been denied by Portuguese and EU officials.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/04/28/spain-and-portugal-work-to-restore-power-after-widespread-blackout-impacts-iberian-peninsu
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spain and Portugal power outage: what caused it, and was there a cyber-attack?
Several countries in Europe have been scrambling to restore electricity after a huge power cut caused blackouts
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/28/spain-and-portugal-power-outage-cause-cyber-attack-electricity
Tomi Engdahl says:
What caused it?
The Portuguese prime minister, Luís Montenegro, said that the issue originated in Spain. Portugal’s REN said a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” had caused a severe imbalance in temperatures that led to the widespread shutdowns.
REN said: “Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration’. These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”
The risks posed to electrical systems by big variations in atmospheric temperatures are well known in the industry, even if it is rare for problems to manifest on this scale.
“Due to the variation of the temperature, the parameters of the conductor change slightly,” said Taco Engelaar, managing director at Neara, a software provider to energy utilities. “It creates an imbalance in the frequency.”
Georg Zachmann, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels thinktank, said the system had suffered “cascading disconnections of power plants” – including one in France – when the frequency of the grid dropped below the European standard of 50Hz.
Could it have been it foul play?
The European Council president, António Costa, who was Portugal’s prime minister from 2015 to 2024, said “there is no evidence that it was a cyber-attack”, but cautioned that the ultimate cause was still unclear. Senior European Commission vice-president Teresa Ribera also told Spain’s Radio 5 that there was no evidence of a deliberate act having caused the outage.
However, Spain’s national security council was convened on Monday to assess the outage. Portugal’s prime minister said it was too early to say for sure what caused the blackout.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/28/spain-and-portugal-power-outage-cause-cyber-attack-electricity
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s what we know about Spain’s unprecedented blackout
Shortly before 12.30pm on Monday, the power grid suffered a complete outage on the Iberian peninsula, affecting Portugal and the south of France
https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/heres-what-know-about-spains-unprecedented-blackout-20250429080912-nt.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Never before in Spain’s modern history has the country suffered a blackout of the magnitude that happened this Monday 28 April, when at around 12.30pm the supply throughout the peninsula fell from 26,695 to 15,970 megawatts.
https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/heres-what-know-about-spains-unprecedented-blackout-20250429080912-nt.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
HIGH VOLTAGE Net zero, cyber attack or freak weather? Urgent probe after Spain & Portugal left in chaos by Europe’s biggest blackout
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/34698892/net-zero-cyber-attack-weather-cause-spain-portugal-blackout/
SPAIN and Portugal plunged into chaos after Europe’s biggest-ever blackout cut power to tens of millions – and now experts are warning that net zero may be partly to blame.
A huge reliance on solar and wind energy left both nations dangerously exposed, analysts said, as airports shut, trains stopped and whole cities fell into darkness.
Spain and Portugal rule out cyberattack after blackout
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2025/0429/1509997-europe-power-outage/
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is known and what remains unknown about the massive blackout in Spain
The government is reluctant to speculate on the cause of the outage, despite the hypotheses that have emerged in the hours without power, such as a possible cyberattack
https://english.elpais.com/spain/2025-04-28/what-is-known-and-what-remains-unknown-about-the-massive-blackout-in-spain.html
What could have caused the major power outage in Spain and Portugal? Experts weigh in
https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/04/28/what-could-have-caused-the-major-power-outage-in-spain-and-portugal-experts-weigh-in
Several scenarios have been put forward by experts as a possible cause behind the major power outage that plunged Spain and Portugal into disarray.
Electricity supplies are slowly coming back to some parts of Spain and Portugal as a major power outage on Monday caused chaos for those living across the Iberian Peninsula.
The outage halted subway trains and railways, cut phone service and Internet connections, and shut down ATM machines and traffic lights throughout booth countries and parts of France. Many now face the prospect of a night without power.
The Iberian region is home to a population of roughly 60 million people, though it’s not clear how many have been affected by the outage.
Red Electrica, Spain’s national grid operator, said in a statement that power supplies had been restored to parts of several regions, including Catalonia, Andalucia, the Basque Country, and Castille and Leon on Monday evening.
Eduardo Prieto, the head of operations at Red Eletrica, told the Associated Press that the situation was unprecedented, calling the event “exceptional and extraordinary,” while Teresa Ribera, European Commission executive vice president tasked with promoting clean energy, called the incident “one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times”.
Authorities are still seeking to determine the exact cause of the outage, but experts have floated some possible scenarios for why it occurred.
It should be noted, however, that there is little evidence at present to say definitively what went wrong.
Rare atmospheric phenomenon?
Reports circulating on Monday suggested that the outage could have been the result of a rare phenomenon called “induced atmosphere vibration,” which caused “anomalous oscillations” in the high-voltage lines of Spain’s energy grid.
“These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European networks,” Portuguese energy company REN reportedly told the BBC on Monday afternoon.
REN later refuted these claims in the Portuguese media. But what are these vibrations, and what effect would they have had on the region’s power grid?
Solomon Brown, a professor of process and energy systems at the University of Sheffield in the UK, said that an “induced atmospheric vibration” could be considered the equivalent of “inducing a small shift in the local electromagnetic field”.
“This would have the same kind of impact as, say, a solar event and may cause imbalances in electrical power flows that would need to be controlled,” he told Euronews Next.
The power distributor could use a range of actions to control this, he continued, like asking power sources to produce or reduce the amount of power they’re providing.
In cases where the disturbance is too great, Brown continued, operators may shut the grid down and slowly turn it back on. Re-energising the grid is “tricky,” he added, saying it may take a number of hours for the power to come back on everywhere.
Possible grid issues
Onyema Nduka, a senior lecturer in power sustainability at the University of London, said that power networks are normally interconnected because the generation plants that power them are located far away from the cities.
That means that a power cut in one part of the grid could “lead to a cascading effect in other areas”.
“Ideally, redundancies are built into the system, such as having multiple supply points, backup generators sited at different locations, interconnected wires and cables etc,” he said.
Portuguese officials quoted by the AP and local media have so far blamed the outage on unspecified technical issues that stem from outside the country, but noted that the investigation is still ongoing.
Cyberattack ruled out by some, not all
Juanma Moreno, president of the Andalusian regional government, said on Monday that a cyberattack has not been ruled out and advised citizens to be cautious.
However, the cyberattack claim has been refuted by officials, including Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s premier, Luis Montenegro, Portugal’s prime minister, and Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council.
In comments to Euronews, Taco Engelaar, managing director at energy infrastructure experts Neara, posited that the interconnectivity of the national grids and their systems would mean a fault or attack would have the same net result.
“Such a widespread grid failure is extremely unusual and could be caused by a number of things: there could be a physical fault in the grid which brings down power, a coordinated cyberattack could be behind it, or a dramatic imbalance between demand and supply has tipped the grid system over the edge,” he said.
“If it’s a system fault, then the interconnectivity between different regional and national grids could be leading to the large footprint of outages we’re seeing today [Monday],” he added.
“The same goes for a cyberattack – lots of these systems are connected and share assets – taking down one could take down many”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sähköt pois koko Suomesta? Asiantuntija: on mahdollista
Suomessa on viimeksi nähty suuri sähkökatko 1970-luvulla, mutta voiko se tapahtua uudestaan?
https://www.is.fi/taloussanomat/art-2000011199448.html
Lue tiivistelmä
Espanjassa ja Portugalissa koetut laajat sähkökatkot voisivat periaatteessa tapahtua myös Suomessa, arvioi asiantuntija.
Kantaverkkoyhtiö Fingridin mukaan Suomen sähköverkko olisi kovilla, jos Ruotsin ja Suomen välinen sähkönsiirto ja suuri ydinvoimala vikaantuisivat samanaikaisesti.
Uusiutuvan energian kasvu ja ydinvoiman mahdolliset viat hankaloittavat sähköverkon tasapainon ylläpitoa.
Huoltovarmuuskeskus varautuu kriisitilanteisiin muun muassa Meri-Porin kivihiilivoimalalla ja yhteistyöllä paikallisten sähköyhtiöiden kanssa.
Espanjassa ja Portugalissa maanantaina koetut laajat sähkökatkot ovat periaatteessa mahdollisia myös Suomessa, arvioi asiantuntija.
Sähköt ovat jo pääosin palautuneet molemmissa maissa. Massiivisten sähkökatkojen syytä selvitellään.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spanish electricity grid operator REE said on Tuesday its preliminary assessment had ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the power outage
https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/power-outage-live-spain-latest-news-portugal-xjlm5nxvm
What you need to know
Cyberattack not cause of blackout according to Spanish grid operator
Increased reliance on renewable energy in Spain ‘making power grid vulnerable’
Spanish king joins National Security Council meeting
Transport networks in Spain and Portugal were particularly badly hit after one of the biggest blackouts in recent European history
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cyberattack on power grids ‘not science fiction,’ expert warns
https://nltimes.nl/2025/04/28/cyberattack-power-grids-science-fiction-expert-warns
Dutch cybersecurity experts have been closely monitoring a major power outage affecting Spain and Portugal, raising concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure. Initially, there were fears that a cyberattack could be behind the widespread disruptions. However, Spain’s grid operator has since confirmed that the outage was not caused by a cyberattack.
While Spanish authorities have attributed the outage to weather-related factors, experts in the Netherlands cautioned that similar issues with critical infrastructure could be caused by cyberattacks. Dave Maasland, director of the cybersecurity firm ESET, emphasized the growing risk of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. He warned that power grids remain vulnerable to such attacks, even if the current outage was not caused by one.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloudflare Radar data shows internet traffic dropped by approximately 30% in Portugal and 37% in Spain following the outage.
https://cybersecuritynews.com/nationwide-power-outages-in-portugal-spain/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spain and Portugal blackouts latest: Power cuts not caused by cyber attack, Spanish grid says
https://news.sky.com/story/blackouts-latest-spanish-army-drafted-in-chaos-on-trains-king-holds-security-meeting-13357538
Power has mostly been restored to cities across Spain and Portugal after a major outage caused chaos yesterday. King Felipe of Spain has chaired a national security meeting as officials scramble to establish the cause of the blackouts.
Was it sabotage? Spain’s high court opens preliminary investigation
José Luis Calama, a judge in Spain’s national court, has ordered a preliminary investigation into the power blackout.
The probe will examine whether the outage was caused by an act of cyber sabotage against critical infrastructure.
If it was, it would qualify as a terrorism offence.
Reports from relevant parties are being requested within a “non-extendable” period of 10 days.
Those reports must indicate the cause of the blackout.
The judge has also asked police intelligence HQ to submit a preliminary report – again within 10 days.
Judge Calama said that while the cause is currently unknown, cyber terrorism should not be ruled out.
Emergency protocols worked – Spanish PM
Spain’s emergency protocols worked, the country’s prime minister has said.
Regarding the cause of the power outage, he said he was not ruling out any hypothesis.
In a lunchtime update, Pedro Sanchez said that as of 6am, things were 99% back to normal.
The majority of schools and supermarkets are open.
Mobile/fibreoptic technology is working in 90% of the territory.
Ed Conway: ‘Plausible theory’ reliance on solar and wind played part in power outages chaos
Were the power outages something to do with sustainable power sources?
Ed Conway, Sky News’s economics and data editor, says it is a “plausible theory”.
He explained: “When you are massively reliant on things like solar and wind and you don’t have that much gas-powered generation going on, then it does potentially leave you more vulnerable to things like this happening.
“There’s something called inertia in the system.
“Basically, when you’ve got lots of generators turning at a certain rpm (revolutions per minute) it means there’s the ability of a big power grid to deal with sudden falls.”
He added: “When you have a lot of solar – when you don’t have a lot of those things turning – then you’re much more vulnerable.
“And that’s the scary thing – is the system more vulnerable to it [when there is a lot of wind and solar].
“The theory would say it is.”
For context: Spain is one of Europe’s biggest producers of renewable energy.
Data from Red Electrica, the partly state-owned Spanish energy producer, shows solar photovoltaic (PV) energy was providing almost 59% of Spain’s electricity at the time of the blackout, while wind power was providing nearly 12%, nuclear power almost 11% and combined cycle gas plants 5%.
Cyber attack not thought to be cause of power cuts, Spanish grid says – as it reveals where outages began
The operator of Spain’s national grid says a cyber attack did not cause yesterday’s power cuts, in what it’s calling a preliminary assessment of what happened.
It has also located where the outages began, saying there was a “generation loss” in the southwest of the country.
It says it’s identified two separate incidents in which power generation went down.
It adds that while systems were “stable” minutes before the blackout, the loss grew to the “point of instability”.
Within a five-second window, conditions exceeded the system’s capabilities.
That led to a “breakdown in interconnections with France” and the Iberian Peninsula’s grid became “isolated”.
Portugal: All electricity customers reconnected but metro delays continue
The Portuguese government says all 6.4 million electricity customers have been reconnected after yesterday’s widespread outage.
That is apart from 800 due to an “unrelated breakdown”.
It says water supplies are operating normally in “practically the entire country”.
On the metro, there is still disruption on some lines, with a separate problem in a data centre being gradually restored.
It says overground trains are running and airports are operational.
Portuguese grid operator says network ‘now perfectly stabilised’
REN – the company that runs supplies of electricity and natural gas in mainland Portugal – says the network is now “perfectly stabilised”.
It adds that following an “absolutely exceptional event” of “external origin”, which happened at 11.33am on Monday, the operation of all substations supplying the national transport network was restored shortly before 11.30pm.
It says it worked in “close collaboration with national and international network operators”.
‘Outage happened in five seconds’
Our correspondent Ashna Hurynag is in Madrid this morning and says there is still a feeling of shock over the speed with which power was lost yesterday.
“The entire Iberian peninsula was brought down by a power outage that happened in just five seconds,” she says.
“Some 60% of the country’s national supply here in Spain went.
“Things like the traffic lights not working, the metro station being down.
“We even had people in Barcelona queuing up to get battery-operated radios.”
She says 90% of Spain’s electricity has started to come back on this morning and 80% of Spanish metro lines are back up and running.
Many Spanish railway services still suspended
Tomi Engdahl says:
Media: Ilmastotavoite saattoi olla historiallisen sähkökatkon takana
Brittilehti The Telegraphin mukaan lisääntynyt aurinko- ja tuulivoiman käyttö saattoi olla Espanjan sähköverkon kaatumisen takana.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/8bac7059-7c9d-4ea1-a87f-5106b407476e
Espanjan riippuvuus hiilineutraalista energiasta saattoi olla Lounais-Eurooppaa kohdanneen laajan sähkökatkon takana, arvioivat brittilehti The Telegraphin haastattelemat asiantuntijat.
Maanantaina tapahtunut sähkökatko vaikutti Espanjan lisäksi myös suureen osaan Portugalia, Andorraa sekä osaan Ranskasta. Sähkökatkon varmaa syytä ei ole vielä saatu selville.
Yhdeksi selittäväksi tekijäksi on esitetty sähkönsyötön rajua pudotusta Espanjan ja Ranskan välisessä verkkoyhteydessä. Espanjan sähköverkosta katosi edelleen tuntemattomasta syystä 15 gigawatin eli noin 15 000 megawatin edestä tehoa viiden sekunnin aikana.
Sähköverkko tarvitsee toimiakseen inertiaa, joka on Fingridin määritelmän mukaan ”pyöriviin massoihin varastoituneen liike-energian tuomaa järjestelmän kykyä vastustaa muutoksia taajuudessa”.
Kaasulla, hiilellä ja vesivoimalla tuotettu energia syntyy generaattoreista, joissa on pyöriviä osia ja näin ne tuottavat inertiaa myös sähköverkkoon. Esimerkiksi aurinkovoiman tuottamisessa samaa inertiaa ei synny.
Huomattava muutos
Espanja on The Telegraphin mukaan kasvattanut vähäpäästöisen energian tuotantoaan roimasti viime vuosina.
Kaksi vuosikymmentä sitten vielä 80 prosenttia maan tarvitsemasta energiasta tuotettiin fossiilisia polttoaineita polttamalla. Lukuun mahtuu tosin mukaan myös ydinvoima, joka ei ole fossiilinen polttoaine, mutta sen tuotanto on aurinko- ja tuulivoimaan verrattuna huomattavasti tasaisempaa.
Vuoteen 2023 mennessä 50 prosenttia energiasta tuotettiin kuitenkin jo uusiutuvilla energianlähteillä. Juuri ennen sähköverkon pettämistä Espanjan energiatuotannosta 53 prosenttia tuotettiin aurinkovoimalla ja 11 prosenttia tuulivoimalla.
Tähän perustuu The Telegraphin julkaisema arvio siitä, että inertian vähäinen määrä Espanjan sähköverkossa saattoi aiheuttaa maanantaina todistetun sähkökatkon. Inertian varmasta määrästä ei ole vielä tietoa.
Fingrid kertoo, että ainakin pohjoismaiset kantaverkkoyhtiöt laskevat jatkuvasti inertian määrää pohjoismaisessa sähköjärjestelmässä.
– Taajuus voi muuttua paljon nopeammin matalan inertian ympäristössä. Jos jollakin alueella on ollut merkittävä verkkohäiriö tai verkkohyökkäys tai mitä tahansa se sitten onkin, verkonhaltijoilla on vähemmän aikaa reagoida, The Telegraphin haastattelema riippumaton energia-analyytikko Kathryn Porter sanoi.
– Tämä voi johtaa peräkkäisiin vikoihin, jos tilannetta ei saada nopeasti hallintaan, hän lisäsi.
Vastakkainen teoria
Brittilehti The Guardian esitti sähkökatkolle myös toisen syyn, joka liittyy ilmastonmuutokseen toisella tavalla.
Portugalin Kansallinen energiaverkkoyhtiö REN kertoi lehden mukaan ”ilmakehän harvinaisen ilmiön” aiheuttaneen vakavan lämpötilojen epätasapainon, joka taas johti lopulta maanantaina todistettuihin sähkökatkoihin.
REN:in mukaan Espanjan sisäosien äärimmäiset lämpötilavaihtelut aiheuttivat sähköä kuljettavissa suurjännitelinjoissa poikkeavia värähtelyjä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spain and Portugal power outage: what caused it, and was there a cyber-attack?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/28/spain-and-portugal-power-outage-cause-cyber-attack-electricity
Several countries in Europe have been scrambling to restore electricity after a huge power cut caused blackouts
Tomi Engdahl says:
Net zero blamed for Europe’s biggest power cut
Experts say a reliance on solar and wind power left Spain and Portugal vulnerable
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/28/blackout-risk-made-worse-by-net-zero/
A reliance on net zero energy left Spain and Portugal vulnerable to the mass blackouts engulfing the region, experts said on Monday night…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spain-Portugal power outage: Grid instability suspected in unprecedented blackout
https://reccessary.com/en/news/world-regulation/spain-portugal-power-outage
Spain and Portugal experienced an unprecedented and widespread power outage, paralyzing daily life and transport systems. It has been described as one of the most severe blackouts in the past decade. Both governments promptly declared a national state of emergency.
While the exact cause remains unclear, the majority of explanations point to grid instability. The process of restarting the grid is complex, and full power restoration could take up to a week.
Portugal’s grid operator, REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais), initially attributed the event to extreme temperature variations in central Spain, which allegedly triggered anomalous oscillations—also referred to as “induced atmospheric vibration”—that disrupted the interconnected European power grid. REN later retracted this explanation.
Experts acknowledge that rapid temperature shifts could affect power systems, but such a large-scale failure remains rare. Professor Solomon Brown, an energy systems expert at Sheffield University, explained that “induced atmospheric vibration” could resemble localized electromagnetic field variations, similar in impact to solar activity, potentially causing current imbalances that require external control.
Spain’s grid operator, REE (Red Eléctrica de España), offered a different narrative, pointing to a brief outage in parts of France that may have overloaded the European grid, leading to cascading failures across Spain and southwestern France.
Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of Eurelectric, described the event as a once-in-50 or even 100-year occurrence. He acknowledged the Spain–France connection as a contributing factor, but not the root cause of the blackout.
High share of renewables raises grid reliability concerns
Spain derives 56% of its electricity from renewable sources, primarily wind and solar. This high reliance makes power generation more weather dependent. Combined with limited interconnection capacity with neighboring countries, this reduces flexibility in load balancing and increases the challenge of maintaining grid stability—factors that likely contributed to the blackout.
Restarting the grid following such a large-scale outage involves a complex “black start” process, which requires smaller backup generators to sequentially restart larger power units before reconnecting them to the transmission network under strict dispatch control.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spanish grid operator’s first assessment rules out cyberattack behind blackout
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spanish-grid-operators-first-assessment-rules-out-cyberattack-behind-blackout-2025-04-29/
MADRID, April 29 (Reuters) – Spanish electricity grid operator REE (REDE.MC)
, opens new tab said on Tuesday its preliminary assessment had ruled out cyberattack as the cause of the nationwide power outage that hit most of Spain and Portugal on Monday.
Lights went off in most of the two countries at 12:33 p.m. (1033 GMT) on Monday in what was the worst blackout ever recorded in the Iberian Peninsula. Power supply only resumed in the evening.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spanish grid operator Red Electrica said there was a “strong oscillation in the power flow, which triggered ‘a very significant loss of generation.’”
What Caused Mass Blackout in Europe? What We Know
https://www.newsweek.com/spain-portugal-europe-blackout-what-caused-blackout-2065617?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR5xSEqZGArxxq7epXU6_EruW75caVJBXS5_nNCQ5X7ZmjumQckIVmCOsOcmBg_aem_2RkxlbLfUrRKMeaSSexhUg#Echobox=1745941784
Spain, Portugal and parts of south-west France were all hit by a mass blackout on Monday, shutting down flights, trains, traffic lights and offices.
Authorities in Madrid and Lisbon as well as operators are all scrambling to understand what exactly happened – Newsweek has broken down what we know so far.
What Happened?
Millions of people were thrust into chaos on Monday when the power cuts hit, leaving phone lines and cell phone networks out of action and locking people out of their bank accounts.
Major cities, including Barcelona, Seville and Lisbon were left without power and with public transport brought to a standstill.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Caused Europe’s Blackout?
Spanish grid operator Red Electrica offered one explanation on Monday night, saying there was a “strong oscillation in the power flow, which triggered ‘a very significant loss of generation.’”
This loss of generation was more than electrical systems are designed to handle, which resulted the Spanish grid disconnecting from the European system and collapsing.
The collapse meant that there were voltage losses in the supply points of both the Spanish and Portuguese peninsular electrical systems.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said the issue began in Spain.
“Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration,’” the operator said. “These oscillations caused synchronization failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”
Another theory is that the Spanish grid was running with very little “inertia,” which refers to the energy moving in a large rotating mass, helping to stabilize the grid when there’s a sudden drop or rise in demand or generation.
A source “with direct knowledge of the sector” who asked to remain anonymous was quoted by Reuters as saying: “In those conditions (when there is little inertia) if there’s a drop in production for whatever reason, the grid loses (more) inertia and everything fails. And in a blackout, you need to rebuild inertia before bringing things back online, which takes a few hours.”
Power had been restored by Tuesday, when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that “no hypothesis” is being ruled out as both Spain and Portugal carry out investigations, meaning a cyber attack could yet be found to be cause of the outage.
Indeed, Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, has opened an investigation into whether “an act of computer sabotage” took place.
“It’s clear that what happened yesterday can’t happen again,”
Britain’s electricity grid operator, the National Energy System Operator, is also investigating outages across the U.K. system that took place hours before the mass blackouts hit Spain and Portugal, The Telegraph reports.
https://www.newsweek.com/spain-portugal-europe-blackout-what-caused-blackout-2065617?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR5xSEqZGArxxq7epXU6_EruW75caVJBXS5_nNCQ5X7ZmjumQckIVmCOsOcmBg_aem_2RkxlbLfUrRKMeaSSexhUg#Echobox=1745941784
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sähkönsyöttö putosi yhtäkkiä Ranskan ja Espanjan välisessä verkkoyhteydessä maanantaina, mikä sai maiden välisen yhteyden kaatumaan, espanjalainen sähköverkkoyhtiö REE sanoo uutistoimisto Reutersin mukaan.
Espanjan sähköverkosta katosi jostain syystä 15 gigawatin eli noin 15 000 megawatin edestä tehoa viiden sekunnin aikaikkunassa. Näin tiedotti Espanjan energiaministeriö. Ministeriö ei selventänyt, mistä tehon katoaminen johtui.
REE:n mukaan pudotus oli niin massiivinen, ettei eurooppalaisia järjestelmiä ole suunniteltu kestämään sellaista. Tällöin Espanjan ja Ranskan välinen verkkoyhteys katkesi, mikä puolestaan johti Espanjan sähköverkon kaatumiseen.
Espanjan putoaminen on todennäköisesti yksi tekijä sähkökatkon taustalla, mutta se ei selitä kaikkea, Kristian Ruby Euroopan sähköteollisuutta edustavasta Eurelectricistä arvioi Britannian yleisradioyhtiö BBC:lle.
– Erityisen teknisen ongelman takia Espanjan sähköverkko putosi laajemmasta eurooppalaisesta verkosta, Ruby kommentoi BBC:n mukaan.
– Ei ajattelisi, että se aiheuttaisi sähkökatkon koko Iberian niemimaalla, joten arvioni mukaan tässä yhtälössä on todennäköisesti ollut muitakin elementtejä, jotka ovat aiheuttaneet tämän tilanteen.
Politicon mukaan EU on aiemmin painostanut Iberian niemimaata, jotta se parantaisi yhteyksiään Euroopan sähköverkkoon. Lehti luonnehtii niemimaan toimivan ryhmittymässä omana ”energiasaarenaan”.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/c38b4db7-a2c7-43ca-8ee8-ce4587bac995
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c9wpq8xrvd9t?post=asset%3A999e8c77-bf34-4681-8253-5b10f09e42ee#post