Power cuts are typically caused by major storms or extreme weather, but on Monday April 28, Spain, Portugal and some parts of France experienced a widespread power outage, causing daily life to grind to a halt.
While power is now almost entirely restored across all affected regions, flights and trains have been impacted, so it’s understandably a concern if you’re currently on holiday or have a trip planned soon. Here’s everything we know about the power outage and its impact on travel.
Has power fully returned to Spain and Portugal?
At the time of writing, it’s been confirmed by Portugal’s government that power supplies have been restored to 6.2 million of 6.5 million households. Water supplies are operating, metro systems in Lisbon and Porto are back on track (though there will be some delays), schools are set to reopen and the health service is stable.
In Spain, the national grid released a statement saying 99.95 percent of power demand has been restored, and that they’re still working to reach 100 percent. Schools across lots of areas in Spain will remain closed today, and a state of emergency is still in place.
Which regions were affected by the power outage?
Spain and Portugal were the most impacted by the power cut, with ‘large areas’ experiencing outages. That included the cities of Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Porto, Valencia, Seville and Bilbao.
Andorra and parts of France were also briefly affected, however French grid operator RTE has said the network was operating again by Monday afternoon.
What caused the power outage?
We don’t yet know the cause, and while a cyber attack has largely been ruled out, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has warned against spreading misinformation while the situation is assessed.
According to the Guardian, Portuguese grid operator REN said the outage was down to a ‘rare atmospheric phenomenon’, with extreme temperature variations in Spain causing ‘anomalous oscillations’ in high-voltage lines.
It said this ‘induced atmospheric vibration’ led to ‘synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network’.
However, Aemet, Spain’s national meteorological office, ruled out the impact of the weather. ‘During the day of 28 April, no unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena were detected, and nor were there sudden variations in the temperature in our network of meteorological stations,’ it said.
What has been the impact so far?
As you might expect, the situation in both Spain and Portugal was chaotic yesterday, and still is this morning in some areas. Shops, restaurants, other businesses and homes across both countries were ‘plunged into darkness’, with reports of people now ‘panic buying’ water due to supply being affected by the lack of power to water pumps.
In Portugal, traffic lights were down and the metro networks in Lisbon and Porto were closed. Cash points experienced long queues.
In Spain, the internet was affected and mobile networks were reportedly down. Tunnels for some highways were closed, and the Madrid metro was closed.
The mayor of Madrid José Luis Martínez-Almeida said the following: ‘I ask all residents of Madrid to keep their movements to an absolute minimum and, if at all possible, to remain where they are. We want to keep all roads clear.’
It’s been confirmed today that in southern Madrid, a woman died in a fire at her flat, which is believed to have been started by a candle. Five other people are in the hospital.
Have flights been affected?
Flights were widely affected during the power outages, and Lisbon Airport is still undergoing some recovery work. While flights to and from Lisbon Airport, and at other major hubs, are now operating, as many as 500 departures scheduled for today are jeopardised according to the Independent. If you have plans to fly in the next few days, check your flight status directly with your airline.
Are trains now running as normal?
Lots of passengers who had tickets for yesterday spent the night sleeping on the platform at Madrid train station, according to the BBC, and services across both countries will likely be experiencing major delays today. Check your journey status with your provider directly.
What’s the latest travel advice?
The FCDO has just updated its travel advice pages for Spain and Portugal, with a statement reading: ‘Power outages which affected Andorra, mainland Spain and mainland Portugal on Monday 28 April have largely been resolved but some disruption remains. We are monitoring the situation. There may still be some travel disruption, check with your tour operator or airline for more information before travelling. Follow the advice of the local authorities and monitor local updates.’
You can keep an eye on the Spain travel advice page here, and the Portugal travel advice page here.
Has this happened before?
Power cuts of this magnitude are extremely rare in Europe, but there was another blackout in Europe back in November 2006. Around 15 million people in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and Spain were without power for two hours.
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