Power began returning to parts of the Iberian peninsula late on Monday after an unprecedented blackout paralysed most of Spain and Portugal, disrupting airports, halting public transport, and suspending routine hospital procedures.
Spain’s Interior Ministry declared a national emergency and deployed 30,000 police officers across the country, while both Spanish and Portuguese governments held emergency cabinet meetings. The scale of the outage is considered highly unusual in Europe.
The exact cause remains under investigation. Portugal pointed to a failure originating in Spain, while Spain blamed a disconnection from France. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez revealed the country experienced a sudden loss of 15GW of electricity generation in just five seconds—around 60% of national demand. “This is something that has never happened before,” he said, adding that NATO had been contacted as a precaution.
Although Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said there was “no indication” of a cyberattack, rumours of sabotage circulated. Joao Conceição, a board member of Portugal’s grid operator REN, said the issue could have been triggered by a massive voltage oscillation within Spain’s grid, which rapidly affected Portugal’s system.
Spain’s national grid operator REE attributed the collapse to an “extreme and unprecedented” interconnection failure with France. “The extent of the loss of power was beyond what European systems are designed to handle,” said REE’s Eduardo Prieto. France’s RTE confirmed it had provided supplementary power to northern Spain following the disruption.
As of Monday night, around 61% of electricity had been restored in Spain, including parts of the Basque Country, Barcelona, and Madrid. Portugal’s REN reported 85 out of 89 power substations were back online, including those supplying Lisbon.
Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida urged residents to remain indoors, citing unlit streets and the need for emergency services to move freely.
Authorities continue to assess the root cause of the blackout, with full restoration expected to take several more hours.
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