Blackout in Spain
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
Never before in Spain's modern history has the country suffered a blackout of the magnitude that happened this Monday 28 April, when at around 12.30pm the supply throughout the peninsula fell from 26,695 to 15,970 megawatts.
The outage affected the entire Iberian peninsula, including Portugal, Andorra and a very small part of southern France. The supply has been maintained without problems in the two archipelagos and in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, as they are supplied by independent grids.
The technical cause behind the blackout, according to Red Eléctrica, was a very strong oscillation in the power flow of networks, of «unknown origin», which caused the Spanish disconnection from the rest of the European electricity system.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in his mid-afternoon speech, said that «we do not have conclusive information» on the causes of the blackout and that the government «does not rule out any hypothesis».
The European Commission's first vice-president and commissioner for competition, Teresa Ribera, however, told the media that there is «nothing» to «affirm» that what is behind the blackout is a boycott or cyber-attack or «anything intentional».
Antonio Costa, president of the Council of Europe and former president of Portugal, said that they are looking into the causes but that, in any case, «at the moment there is no indication of any cyber-attack».
Some reports quoting Reuters initially claimed that the Portuguese operator REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais) claimed that the power outages in Portugal were the result of a failure in the Spanish grid, related to a rare atmospheric phenomenon. However, REN strongly denied these reports that these oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electricity systems, resulting in successive disturbances throughout the interconnected European grid in a phenomenon known as «induced atmospheric vibration». These anomalies are due to extreme temperature variations that cause oscillations on very high voltage lines (400 kV).
French grid operator RTE denied that the power blackout in Spain and Portugal on Monday was due to a fire on a line between the cities of Narbonne and Perpignan.
The department of national security said that «it is still too early» to know what caused the tremendous power flow oscillation. Presidential advisers do not rule out either a cyber-attack or conventional sabotage, but neither - they insist - a «large-scale failure».
The National Institute of Cybersecurity (Incibe) confirms that it is already investigating whether there is some kind of cyberattack behind the blackout. The national cryptologic centre CCN, which is part of the national intelligence centre CNI, has also been mobilised. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Spain has become a target for Russian hackers, who have attacked all kinds of infrastructures and institutions.
The government urgently convened the National Security Council to assess the situation in the presence of, among others, the prime minister, the chief of defence and the director of the CNI.
Red Eléctrica began to «recover power» in the north and south of the peninsula as of 1pm. The company Redeia has indicated that the supply recovery process «involves the gradual energisation of the transmission grid as the generation groups are coupled», explained the operator. Red Eléctrica estimated that full recovery of service could take between six and ten hours. For some it was even longer.
Early on Tuesday, Red Eléctrica confirmed on its official X profile, formerly Twitter, that 99% of the peninsular's energy demand has recovered.
The problems caused by the blackout, so far, have been mainly in communications and, above all, in transport. Both Renfe and other rail services, as well as metro services in the major capitals, have seen their services interrupted due to the lack of electricity supply.
Adif announced shortly after 3.30pmon Monday that all services were suspended. Airports were affected, although aircraft were able to land normally.
The outage of traffic lights has also caused serious disruption in towns and cities. The DGT asked people not to use vehicles except in exceptional cases. Most hospitals were operating normally as they have autonomous supply equipment.
Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport, has updated this Tuesday the situation of rail transport in Spain. Early on Tuesday, the Madrid-Barcelona line was operating normally; the corridor connecting the centre of the peninsula with Valencia/Murcia/Alicante was also at 100%.
The lines linking the south of Spain with the centre of the country have started their service normally for the most part. The trains that run between Madrid-Granada, Madrid-Malaga and Madrid-Algeciras are operating «normally», said the minister. Trains on the Madrid-Seville line are not operating in their entirety and «there is a road service between Seville and Cordoba». The Madrid-Cádiz and Madrid-Huelva trains are, for the moment, suspended. In addition, connections between Malaga and Granada have not been able to start normal services either.
Journeys from central to northern Spain and vice versa are also having problems providing 100% service. The Madrid-Pamplona line is already operating, but with delays, and journeys from the Basque Country to Madrid are running «normally».
However, trains to and from Madrid-Santader are suspended «due to lack of signalling», as is the Madrid-Salamanca line. The Galicia-Madrid connection is not active 'due to lack of voltage' from Sanabria. Madrid-Asturias, Madrid-Logroño and Madrid-Salamanca are also suspended. In addition, the Basque Country-Barcelona connection cannot start service. Finally, trains between Madrid and Badajoz cannot run.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para registrados.
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Debido a un error no hemos podido dar de alta tu suscripción.
Por favor, ponte en contacto con Atención al Cliente.
¡Bienvenido a SURINENGLISH!
Tu suscripción con Google se ha realizado correctamente, pero ya tenías otra suscripción activa en SURINENGLISH.
Déjanos tus datos y nos pondremos en contacto contigo para analizar tu caso
¡Tu suscripción con Google se ha realizado correctamente!
La compra se ha asociado al siguiente email
Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados
¿Ya eres registrado?
Inicia sesiónNecesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.