Spanish premier says ‘all possible causes’ of outage under investigation as he warns against disinformation. Power supply has been re-established in the majority of Spain and Portugal following a massive blackout plunged millions of homes into darkness.
Over 99 percent of Spanish power networks had been restored by Tuesday morning and the majority had “stabilised” in Portugal, as reported by the respective power operators of the countries, after Monday’s blackout that left people stuck in buildings, elevators and public transport and severed access to phones and the internet.
Iberian authorities have not yet explained the massive power cut. Spain’s electricity grid operator Red Electrica said it was able to meet nearly all of the country’s electricity demand on Tuesday morning. Portugal’s REN said by late Monday it had all of the country’s 89 power substations back in service.
In Madrid, the Spanish capital, “loud cheers” broke out overnight when the power came back on, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reported. “But a lot of people were still stuck in the stations because the trains were not running,” she said.
Madrid’s metro system announced that 80 per cent of the trains would be running again during rush hour on Tuesday morning. In Portugal, most of the country’s 6.5 million homes had their electricity restored overnight, REN reported. With power restored, questions are now being asked about what led to such widespread collapse of the region’s grids.
Scarcely a corner of the Iberian Peninsula, with a combined population of around 60 million, was left untouched by the blackout. Officials reported little precedent. Unusual climate conditions and cyberattacks are among the possible nominees put forward. Authorities called for calm as the investigation process begins.
Both the Spanish and Portuguese governments planned crisis meetings on Tuesday morning. Portuguese grid operator officials have blamed a “rare atmospheric phenomenon,” Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego reported. Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the cause of the failure was “probably in Spain.”.
