A blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill Monday, halting subway and railway trains, cutting phone service and shutting down traffic lights and ATM machines for the 50 million people who live across the Iberian Peninsula.
Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica said that restoring power fully to the country and neighboring Portugal could take 6-10 hours. By mid-afternoon, voltage was progressively being restored in the north, south and west of the peninsula, the company said.
The company declined to speculate on the causes of the huge blackout. The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Center issued a statement saying there was no sign the outage was due to a cyberattack.
Eduardo Prieto, head of operations at Red Eléctrica, told journalists it was unprecedented, calling the event “exceptional and extraordinary.”
Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE said a major power outage hit several regions of the country just after midday local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain’s parliament in Madrid and subway stations across the country in the dark.
A graph on Spain’s electricity network website showing demand across the country indicated a steep drop around 12:15 p.m. from 27,500MW to near 15,000MW.
Spanish airports were operating on backup electrical systems and some flights were delayed, according to Aena, the company that runs 56 airports in Spain including Madrid and Barcelona.
In Lisbon, terminals closed and throngs of tourists sat outside in the sun and the shade waiting for news about their flights.
