MADRID: Electricity returned to the majority of Spain and Portugal on Tuesday after a massive blackout swept across the Iberian Peninsula, leaving millions without power, cutting off phone and internet service, and stranding passengers in trains and elevators.
According to the Spanish grid operator REE, over 90% of mainland Spain had electricity restored by early Tuesday. Lights also came back on in Madrid and Lisbon.
The outage affected nearly every region of the peninsula, home to nearly 60 million people, though the exact cause of the disruption remains unclear. Speculation and unverified rumors about a cyberattack circulated on social media, prompting officials to urge caution.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro suggested the disruption likely originated in Spain. Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez confirmed that “all potential causes” were under investigation and warned against unfounded speculation due to the risk of spreading misinformation.
Sánchez revealed that approximately 15,000 megawatts of electricity—more than half of Spain’s power consumption at the time—vanished in just five seconds. While Portugal expected full power restoration within hours, Sánchez cautioned that some Spanish workers may need to stay home due to ongoing disruptions.
Portugal’s national grid operator reported that around 6.2 million of its 6.5 million households had regained electricity overnight.
The blackout’s effects briefly reached southwest France and even caused internet and airport issues in Morocco.
Nineteen-year-old Madrid construction worker Carlos Candori described the chaos as unprecedented: “There’s no phone service. I can’t reach my family or even get to work.”
Cash Runs and Traffic Gridlock
Across cities in Spain and Portugal, residents rushed to ATMs, jammed the streets in search of mobile signal, and formed long queues for taxis and buses. With traffic signals out of commission, police had difficulty managing the resulting gridlock and advised drivers to stay off the roads.
In Madrid alone, authorities carried out 286 rescue operations to free people trapped in elevators.
Train service was halted nationwide. On Tuesday morning, three trains remained stuck with passengers on board, according to Transport Minister Óscar Puente. High-speed routes such as Madrid–Barcelona and Madrid–Valencia were expected to resume, though other lines like Barcelona–Alicante and Madrid–Galicia continued to face disruptions.
Major railway stations in cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, and Seville remained open overnight to shelter stranded travelers.
Spain’s nuclear plants shut down automatically as a safety measure. Diesel generators kept them in a stable condition, the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council confirmed.
Widespread Disruption and Economic Impact
Prime Minister Sánchez described the outage—which struck shortly after midday—as having caused “serious disruption” and economic losses for businesses and industries across the country.
The European Commission is in communication with both Spain and Portugal to assess the situation. European Council President António Costa stated on social media that there is no evidence of a cyberattack.
Air travel was also affected, with flight delays reported in Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon, according to Eurocontrol, the European air traffic agency.
In Barcelona, locals and tourists flooded the streets for answers. Student Laia Montserrat recounted being sent home after internet service failed at her school, only to discover that train service had also been suspended. “Now we don’t know what to do,” she said.
According to internet watchdog NetBlocks, the blackout wiped out much of Spain’s digital infrastructure, reducing web activity to just 17% of normal levels.
Hospitals Affected, History of Blackouts
El País reported that hospitals used emergency generators to keep essential wards operational, though some departments were left without power.
While rare, massive blackouts have hit other nations in recent years. Tunisia experienced one in 2023, Sri Lanka in 2020, and Argentina and Uruguay in 2019. In 2012, India faced one of the largest outages in history. In Europe, a 2006 grid failure in Germany left 10 million people across several countries without electricity for an hour.
