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Spain and certain parts of Portugal and France were struck by a huge power cup on Monday which interrupted the trains, disturbed mobile flights and networks and made traffic lights.
The data from the Spanish electricity operator showed that more than 10 GW of demand was cut when the power failure hit afternoon, suggesting that it was one of the largest in recent European history.
The operator said he activated plans to restore the cooperation offer with companies in the sector. In a message on X, he said he was looking for the cause of the incident.
He then declared that he had started to recover the tension in the north and south of the peninsula, which, according to him, was essential to gradually recover energy supply.
The breakdown assigned millions of people through Spain in cities like Madrid and Barcelona, while the Portuguese media reported that the country’s network operator said that the Cup had struck electricity supply in the Iberian peninsula as a whole.
The traffic authority of Spain called on people not to drive their cars, because the traffic lights were out of operation due to the cup.
In Madrid, people went into the streets, while metro stations were evacuated and shops, restaurants and closed offices.
Spain obtains 43% of its electricity from wind and solar energy, but the network and storage capacity have not followed the rate of rapid development of renewable energies by the country.
The operator of the French network RTE said that some parts of France had been briefly affected by the breakdown, but that power had been quickly restored.
He added that the Iberian Peninsula electrical network was automatically disconnected from the main continental European network at 12:38 p.m. but was reconnected an hour later.
RTE said that he did not know the origin of the failure but tried to support the Iberian peninsula to restore power. He thinks that the breakdown is from the Iberian peninsula, not in France.
Some parts of the Spanish national grid website were down on Monday. The company, Red Eléctrica, describes itself as “the backbone of the electrical system”.
Local media reported that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez should take a crisis meeting with senior government officials and that the National Cyber Security Institute of the country was investigating to find out if the failure was due to a cyber attack.
The European Commission said it was in contact with Spain, Portugal and European grid operators “to understand the underlying cause and the impact of the situation”.
