The Spanish government has set up a special commission to determine what caused Massive power This struck almost the whole country, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Tuesday, stressing that no potential cause had been excluded. He also joined the broader European Union to promise that everything necessary would be done to prevent a recurrence of the failure of the electrical network, which puts to the earth most of the Iberian peninsula – composed of Spain and neighboring Portugal – to stop and left people in the dark until Tuesday morning.
“All the necessary measures will be taken to make sure that this will not happen again,” said Sánchez at a press conference in Madrid, just a few hours after the lights are returned.
The still exposed power out of Monday was the most serious to reach Spain and Portugal, which have a combined population of around 60 million people. According to the Associated Press, around 49 million inhabitants of Spain saw the production of electricity in their country drop by about 15 gigawatts – around 60% of the demand typical in real time in the country – in the space of five seconds, from local time just afternoon on Monday.
The Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica said early Tuesday that around 99% of its energy capacity was restored, after many residents of the Spanish capital Madrid and Lisbon in neighboring Portugal fell asleep in total darkness.
Burak Akbulut / Anadolu via Getty Images
The offices of the Iberian Peninsula were closed and traffic was left in chaos on Monday. Airports, as well as metro trains and systems, soil, automatic distributors have ceased to operate and many mobile telephony networks have dropped. The gas generators and radios powered by battery stole shelves.
What caused the power failure in Spain and Portugal?
Sánchez had declared on Monday that a problem in the broader European network, which he had called a “strong oscillation”, had been at the origin of the breakdown, but this was never confirmed or exposed by the Spanish chief or the country’s electricity suppliers, and the officials subsequently asked people to refrain from speculation, stressing that nothing had been excluded. Tuesday, Sánchez excluded a possible problem, saying that there was no nuclear energy production capacity on Monday. About 20% of Spain’s power comes from its nuclear power plants.
Burak Akbulut / Anadolu via Getty Images 
Ren, the national operator of the Portugal electrical network, said on Monday that there had been a rare atmospheric phenomenon in Spain, that it had pinned over extreme temperature variations, but that this explanation had also never been confirmed, and Tuesday, the Spanish meteorological agency said that it had not detected “unusual or unusual meteorological phenomena” or unusual meteorological fluctuations “or unusually dramatic weather fluctuations.
Eduardo PERIETO, who is in charge of operations for the Spanish Elléctrica, said on Monday that the cause is not clear, the power failure was unprecedented, “exceptional and extraordinary”.
The company said on Monday that there was no indication of a cyber attack causing the breakdown, but Sánchez said the next day that a separate investigation would continue to examine the possibility.
Antonio Costa, president of the European Council of the EU, said Tuesday that there was “no indication of cyber attack”. Her colleague Teresa Ribera, one of the executive vice-presidents of the European Commission, also seemed to exclude sabotage, but has qualified the power outage “one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times”.
The power failure was the second to strike Europe in just over a month. Heathrow airport in London, one of the busiest hubs in Europe, was closed For most of March 20, after a local electricity sub-station has ignited. The cause of this fire remains under investigation, but the London metropolitan police said they did not seem suspicious.
AP photo / kirsty wigglesworth 
Although no official has suggested that the fire in London or the power failure of the Iberian peninsula was the result of a harmful activity, they are both supported in the concerns of Russian sabotage targeting the countries of Western Europe which support Ukraine.
A familiar source with the case confirmed to CBS News in early November investigate If the incendiary devices that exploded in July 2024 to DHL logistics centers in Germany and Great Britain were part of a greater Operation led by Russian military intelligence Agencies, senior officials of the Russian government or by external persons acting in the perceived interest of Russia.
There have also been many incidents of submarine cablesMainly power or telecommunications data, being cut or disturbed in recent years, often after Russian ships or Chinese in the region.
European officials said that such alleged sabotage actions were part of a Russian “hybrid war” against Ukraine donors and its democratic adversaries in the West.
Jovita Nelipšienė, the European Union ambassador to the United States, CBS News told CBS News “60 minutes” In November, this Russian sabotage, as well as the assassination of political enemies not only in Russia, but also on European soilwas part of President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to challenge “the order, the stability of Europe and really test” the will of the continent and the ability to respond to such operations.
“All these sabotage, cyber or attacks on critical infrastructure really occur in the territory of the EU and NATO. They test how much they … can move.”
