Giant blackout in Spain, Portugal and to France: Europe shaken by a historic electrical failure
A major electricity cut swept the Iberian peninsula on Monday afternoon and overwhelmed to the southwest of France on Monday afternoon. From 12:30 p.m. local time, the Spanish and Portuguese networks collapsed, causing palpable chaos in large metropolises, frozen metros in Madrid and Barcelona to the inert signaling lights in the streets of Lisbon.
Even France has not been spared: border regions, interconnected in the Iberian network, have also experienced interruptions, notably in Perpignan. Estimates converge around 50 to 60 million people impacted through Spain, Portugal and South West of France.
A breakdown that raises more questions than answers
At a time when we write these lines, the Spanish and Portuguese authorities are still trying to understand what caused this brutal fall in electricity consumption. In Spain, the network saw its charge diving in half in a few seconds, going from 25,000 megawatts to only 12,500. A tumble that was enough to kneel part of the country.
The first hypotheses evoke a dysfunction in European interconnections. In other words, the problem might come from an imbalance between supply and demand for electricity on a continental scale. But for the moment, no specific incident has been officially identified.
In Portugal, the same scenario: Porto, Lisbon and other big cities have seen their daily lives stop. Again, the electrical network has sold without warning, leaving the inhabitants in uncertainty.
In France, only certain areas of the South West have been affected, without comparison, however, with the extent of Iberian Blackout. Belgium has remained on the sidelines, no major incidents have been reported on its network.
RTE (France), Red Eléctrica (Spain) and Ren (Portugal) network managers are currently at work to stabilize the situation. Surveys are already underway to determine the exact origin of this event which recalls the fragility of interconnected European systems.
