BARCELONA, Spain — A massive power outage swept across Spain and Portugal on Monday, plunging their capitals, Madrid and Lisbon, into darkness and disrupting subway systems, phone networks, traffic lights, and ATMs across the Iberian Peninsula.
The rare and extensive blackout, one of the most significant in recent memory for the region, affected a combined population of more than 57 million people. The precise number of those impacted remains unclear.
In Spain, the state broadcaster RTVE reported that the outage struck multiple regions shortly after noon local time, leaving its newsroom, the Spanish Parliament in Madrid, and subway stations nationwide without power. Data from Spain’s electricity network operator, Red Eléctrica, showed a sharp drop in national power demand around 12:15 p.m., plummeting from 27,500 megawatts to roughly 15,000 megawatts.
Red Eléctrica said it was investigating the cause of the outage, which affected the entire peninsula. By midafternoon, the operator reported progress in restoring power in northern and southern Spain, with efforts underway to gradually stabilize the national grid.
In Portugal, a nation of 10.3 million, the blackout disrupted Lisbon and its surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern regions. Portuguese officials suggested the issue originated outside the country. “It appears to be a problem with the distribution network, likely in Spain,” Cabinet Minister Leitão Amaro told the national news agency Lusa, adding that the cause was still under investigation.
Portugal’s electricity distributor, E-Redes, attributed the outage to a broader issue with the European electricity system, according to the newspaper Expresso. The company said it had deliberately cut power in certain areas to stabilize the grid. E-Redes also claimed that parts of France were affected, though this could not be independently verified.
The outage brought daily life to a standstill. In Lisbon, several subway trains were evacuated, courts suspended operations, and ATMs and electronic payment systems failed. Traffic lights in the capital went dark, snarling roads. Mobile phone networks were largely inoperable, though some messaging apps remained functional.
The interconnected nature of Europe’s power grid has raised questions about the outage’s origins and its potential to ripple across borders. While officials work to restore electricity, the incident underscores the vulnerability of modern infrastructure to systemic failures.
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