MADRID: Major blackouts have occurred in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and parts of southern France near the Spanish border leaving millions of p...
MADRID: Major blackouts have occurred in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and parts of southern France near the Spanish border leaving millions of people without electricity and disrupting transport and communication systems.
TASS has compiled the key details on the situation.
The scale
Power outages have been reported all over Spain and Portugal.
Power supply problems were also reported in Andorra and parts of southern France near the Spanish border.
The cause of the blackouts has not yet been identified.
The power grids of Spain and Portugal reportedly lost 10 GW of capacity during the blackouts, The Financial Times reported, citing the power grid operator.
Aftermath
According to a TASS correspondent in Madrid, mobile internet and communication is unavailable in the city.
According to the ABC newspaper, the Madrid Airport and metro have reported problems with power.
Madrid’s Barajas International Airport is completely without power. Outages affected the operation of other airports in the region as well, the Euronews television channel said.
Spanish rail operator Renfe announced a complete suspension of train services nationwide due to the blackout.
Spain’s five nuclear power plants suspended electricity generation as a precaution.
Play at the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended.
Hundreds of people were left stranded in Barcelona’s metro system due to power outages, the Cadena SER radio station reported.
According to the radio station, at least eight trains were stranded in tunnels and stations in Barcelona.
Lisbon’s international airport was closed for departures and arrivals, a spokesman for its air traffic control service told TASS.
Restoration efforts
Technicians have begun to restore power supplies in Spain’s northern and southern regions following the massive blackout, grid operator Red Electrica said.
It will take from six to ten hours to resume power supplies in Spain, the El Pais newspaper said, citing Red Electrica.
The Portugal Resident portal reported that the country’s energy authority has begun to resume power supplies to some regions.
It said that the E-Redes operator cut off power supplies in "some areas" to stabilize the grid. Power outages are still reported in southern Portugal’s Algarve region.
According to E-Redes, the power outages may have been caused by a "problem in the European grid that affected the national one."
Power supplies have been resumed in the French Basque Country bordering Spain, the French power grids operator RTE said.
It also promised to help Spain deal with the problem.
Reaction from authorities
The Spanish government convened an emergency meeting, Euronews reported.
Spain’s authorities promised to investigate these massive power outages to see if they were caused by a cyberattack, ABC said.
A crisis management committee was set up in Spain, Bloomberg reported citing sources.
The causes of the massive blackouts have not yet been identified, with a possible cyberattack not being ruled out, the agency said.
The Spanish government has called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, the El Mundo newspaper reported.
According to El Mundo, the prime minister, chief of the defense staff, and intelligence chief will take part in the meeting.
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