Spain, Portugal suffer major power outage; Iberia disconnected from Europe

Spain and Portugal suffered a major power outage on April 28, with power supply interrupted for much of Iberia for reasons as yet unknown, according to national grid operators and government agencies.

Data from Spain's Red Electrica de Espana showed a sudden plunge in consumption at 12:33 pm Spanish time (1030 GMT) from around 25 GW to just over 10 GW amid reports of a complete loss of load.

"We are beginning to recover power in the north and south of the peninsula, which is key to gradually addressing the electricity supply," REE said in a first update on X. "This process involves the gradual energization of the transmission grid as the generating units are connected."

The return of electricity should take several hours, likely between six hours and 10 hours, REE's director of operations Eduardo Prieto said in a conference call early afternoon.

REE said it had no clear understanding of what the cause was.

"This is an exceptional circumstance unlike any that has occurred before," he said.

The company will keep the public and other interested parties informed, with some supplies already re-established in some parts of the country, REE said.

Media reports of near-complete power outages including stopping trains and other transport as well as communication networks have come from various regions across Spain as well as Portugal.

The causes are being analyzed and all resources are being dedicated to solving it, REE added.

The Spanish government said that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was holding an extraordinary meeting of the National Security Council, starting at 3 pm local time.

In a statement around 6 pm local time, Sanchez said efforts to restore power were underway, but reasons for the unprecedented blackout were still unknown.

In its latest update after 7 pm local time, REE said one-fifth of Spanish peninsular demand was reestablished.

Reactor shutdowns

Meanwhile, four of Spain's seven nuclear reactors that were operating at the time of the blackout have automatically shut down.

The operators notified the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) of the declaration of a pre-alert emergency situation due to the loss of external power supply, CSN said.

The Almaraz 2, Asco 1 and 2 and Vandellos 2 started their diesel generators. Likewise, the diesel generators at Almaraz 1, Cofrentes and Trillo have been started up, it said.

In an update at around 5 pm Spanish time, CSN said the four reactors were in the process of recovering their external power supply, preparing for a reconnection to the grid in accordance with their procedures.

Elsewhere, French grid operator RTE said the French grid is secure with "no contagion from this incident to be feared."

The Iberian grid was automatically disconnected from the European grid from 12:38 pm to 1:30 pm, at which time the 400 kV power line between French and Spanish Catalonia was restored to service.

In France, homes were without power for several minutes in the Basque Country, but all power has been restored.

RTE teams are mobilized to provide assistance to the Spanish grid operator, and 700 MW of Spanish consumption has already been restored by RTE.

RTE is able to increase its assistance to Spain to 950 MW as soon as the Iberian grid is technically capable of handling it.

European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said on X that the EC was in contact with the national authorities of Spain and Portugal, as well as industry group ENTSO-E, to understand the underlying cause and impact.

"[We] will keep monitoring and ensure smooth information exchange amongst all relevant parties," Pinho said, adding that protocols were in place to restore the functioning of the system.

European Council President Antonio Costa said he was in touch with the leaders of Spain and Portugal on the widespread power outage.

"Grid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply. At this point, there are no indications of any cyber attack," Costa said on X.

Meanwhile, Portuguese grid operator REN said that the power outages were the result of a failure in the Spanish electricity grid, related to a rare atmospheric phenomenon.

Extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain led to anomalous oscillations in high voltage lines, the Portuguese operator said, according to media reports.