A rare atmospheric phenomenon is deemed to be behind the blackout, while a cyberattack seems unlikely.
Spain, Portugal and parts of southwestern France have been hit by a widespread power blackout that paralysed public transport, caused large traffic jams, delayed flights, and left residents unable to access cash from ATMs, as utility operators and the authorities scrambled to restore the electric grid.
Investigations into the causes of the outage on Monday were ongoing, but Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said there was “no indication” of a cyberattack. Speaking to reporters, he also said he expected electrical power to be restored “in the coming hours”. The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre also said there was no sign the disruption was due to a cyberattack.
As the outage continued in Spain, the Interior Ministry declared a state of emergency Monday evening, adding the emergency status would be applied in the regions that request it. So far, Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadura have asked for the central government to take over public order and other critical functions.
Earlier, in a televised address, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said there was no conclusive information on the cause of the blackout. He added that interconnections with neighbouring France and Morocco had partially restored supply, while “combined cycles and hydroelectric plants throughout the country have also been reactivated, which should allow us to recover the supply across Spain soon.”
The Spanish and Portuguese governments quickly convened emergency cabinet meetings after the outage, which also briefly affected a part of France bordering northeastern Spain.
Earlier, the head of operations of Spain’s grid operator Red Electrica de Espana (REE), Eduardo Prieto, told a news conference that restoring power to the Spanish electric grid could take six to 10 hours. REE said electricity had returned to parts of northern, southern and western Spain.
The Spanish government urged residents to stay put to avoid traffic chaos. “The government is working to identify the origin of this incident and dedicating all possible resources to resolve it as quickly as possible,” Sanchez’s office said in a statement.
The European Commission said it was “in contact” with local authorities “to understand the underlying cause” of the blackout. “The commission will keep monitoring the situation and make sure that there is smooth information exchange amongst all relevant parties,” a spokesperson for the European Union’s executive arm said.
“Grid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply,” European Council President Antonio Costa said on X. “At this point, there are no indications of any cyberattack.”
There were traffic jams in Madrid city centre as traffic lights stopped working, Cadena SER radio station reported, as well as people trapped in stalled metro cars and lifts in the Spanish capital.
Panicked residents tried in vain to get a signal as the phone lines cut. “There’s no [phone] coverage, I can’t call my family, my parents, nothing: I can’t even go to work,” Carlos Condori told AFP. “People [are] stunned, because this had never happened in Spain”.
At Cibeles Square, one of Madrid’s busiest thoroughfares, the blackout of traffic lights unleashed a cacophony of sirens, whistles and car horns as police tried to control the pile-up of traffic.
Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from the Spanish city of Valencia, said the airport was one of the very few places still with power. “A lot of people are waiting for news about their flights, but the airport is functioning,” Vaessen said.
“People are extremely frustrated, staring at their phones, hoping to connect with someone,” she added. “Authorities have stated that it is the first time in history such a large-scale blackout has occurred.”
The Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and his opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.
The Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.
Portugal’s utility REN said “all plans for the phased restoration of energy supply are being activated, in coordination with European energy producers and operators”.
“REN is in permanent contact with official entities, namely the National Civil Protection Authority. At the same time, the possible causes of this incident are being assessed,” a spokesperson said.
In France, grid operator Reseau de Transport d’Electricite (RTE) said there was a brief outage, but power had been restored. It was investigating the cause.
“An electrical incident is currently affecting Spain and Portugal, the cause of which remains to be determined,” RTE said. “In France, homes were without power for several minutes in the Basque Country. All power has since been restored.”
RTE said its teams had been mobilised to assist the Spanish grid operator, and 700MW of Spanish consumption had already been restored via France by RTE.
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