Stay home, Spanish PM urges citizens as Iberian power outage continues

The prime minister also asked Spaniards to avoid making unnecessary phone calls so as to avoid overloading the country’s communications system, which has been affected throughout the day. 

The power outage, which left the entire of the Iberian Peninsula without electricity, appears to have been triggered by an imbalance in the country’s electrical grid. Eduardo Prieto, director of Spanish transmission system operator Red Eléctrica, said the blackout had been caused by a “very strong oscillation in the electrical network” that led Spain’s power system to “disconnect from the European system, and the collapse of the Iberian electricity network at 12:38.”

Prieto refused to speculate as to what had caused the power surge, but said electricity should be fully restored to all parts of Spain by the end of the day. As of the late afternoon, the lights were back on in most of the northernmost and southern regions, thanks in part to the supply of power from France and Morocco via the interconnectors that link both countries to Spain.

Spain’s opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and its support for Ukraine against Russia’s aggression have made it a major target for cyberattacks, and throughout the day there was heightened speculation that the crisis could be the result of nefarious action. The Joint Cyberspace Command, which reports to the Defense Staff and oversees cybersecurity, and the National Cryptologic Center, have both launched investigations into the blackout.

But in Brussels, European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera appeared to dismiss that possibility, saying that there was “nothing that allows us to say that there is any kind of sabotage or cyberattack.”

“We are working with the utmost caution and we will have to continue investigating to determine what are the specific causes that have generated this incident, which is one of the most serious that have been recorded in Europe for a long time,” Ribera added.