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Spain and parts of Portugal and France were hit by a major power outage on Monday that paralyzed transport networks and disrupted mobile communications, with authorities warning they could continue in the evening.
Local media said authorities were studying if an internet attack had caused the interruption, which immobilized the railway system, delayed flights and made traffic lights dark.
Data from the Spanish Electricity Operator showed that more than 10GW of demand was interrupted when the interruption was hit after noon of local time, suggesting it was one of the greatest in the last European history.
The operator, Red Eléctrica, said he had activated plans to restore supply in cooperation with businesses in the sector. In a message on X, she said she was looking for the cause of the incident.
He then said he was recovering tension in the north, south and west of the peninsula, which he said was essential to gradually restore power supply. But it warned that restoring full power would last between six and 10 hours.
By mid -afternoon, all the country’s nuclear power stations remained out of line, according to Montel, the energy data specialist, as they sought to respond to the outage.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez held a crisis meeting with senior government officials after local media reported that the National Institute of Spanish Cyber Security was investigating if the interruption was due to an internet attack.
The outage touched millions of people across Spain in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, while the Portuguese media reported that the country’s network operator said the cut had hit the power supply across the Iberian Peninsula as a whole.
Spain’s main traffic authority called on people not to drive their cars because the traffic lights were out of operation because of the cut. Renfe, the main train operator of the country, said all services were suspended.
In Madrid, people were poured on the street, as the subway stations were evacuated and the shops, restaurants and offices were closed. Coverage of the mobile phone was also initially hit. Local media said some – but not all – hospitals were functioning as normal with the help of spare generators.
Aena, who runs Madrid Airport and 45 others throughout Spain, said she was relying on the energy spare supplies to operate and that flights were experiencing delays.
The rate of delays will depend on whether the crews and passengers could reach the airports, she added.
Spain receives 43 percent of its electricity from the wind and solar energy, but the capacity of the network and storage has not maintained the rhythm with the rapid development of the renewable energy country.
French network operator RTE said parts of France were briefly affected by the outage, but that power was quickly restored.
She added that the Iberian Peninsula’s power network automatically broke away from the main continental European network at 12.38 pm, but was connected again an hour later.
RTE said he did not know the origin of the interruption, but was trying to support the Iberian Peninsula in restoring power. He believes the interruption originated in the Iberian Peninsula, not in France.
Parts of the Spanish national network website sat on Monday. The company describes itself as the “spine of the electricity system”.
The European Commission said it was in contact with the operators of the Spanish, Portugal and Europe network “to understand the underlying cause and the impact of the situation”.
