The government of Spain has declared a state of emergency after being hit by large scale power outages. Portugal too isn’t out of the woods yet, but emergency workers have been working round the clock to restore services. While there is no official word about the cause of the outages, there are growing concerns surrounding the vulnerability of the connectivity infrastructure in the region.
According to a report by Euro News, Spain’s national cybersecurity office stated that it had gathered evidence suggesting the power outage could be the result of a cyberattack, but this claim has been denied by Portuguese and EU officials.
Everything, everywhere, all at once
Cloudflare showcased the sudden drop in data usage in Spain in the following graph which also shows the previous week’s figures for comparison.
Things also looked bleak for Portugal.
After a late-night cabinet meeting, Spain declared an emergency in the regions of Andalucia, Extremadura, Murcia, La Rioja and Madrid. Throughout the day, people were advised to call emergency services only in case of extreme urgency, and were also advised to clear the roads for emergency workers.
Meanwhile, Portugal is allegedly blaming Spain for its ordeal. According to a CNN report, João Faria Conceição, head of REN, said Portugal was badly affected because it imports electricity from Spain in the morning. This is reportedly because Spain is one hour ahead and electricity produced by its solar plants is cheaper than producing it internally, during those hours. Reportedly 15GW of power were suddenly lost in five minutes, and no official reason or explanation has been offered so far for the sudden and massive outage.
In an official update Portuguese authorities said, “The national authorities are working from the first minute to ensure the replenishment of all services as soon as possible, in order to minimize the impact on the country. We are closely monitoring the situation with all the security forces and authorities and competent authorities to ascertain the origin of the incident.” It advised people to follow the instructions of emergency authorities and avoid non-essential travel.
EU authorities are also monitoring the situation. Taking to X, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, said that she had spoken with the both, the Spanish and Portuguese Prime Ministers, and reaffirmed the EU Commission’s support in monitoring the situation with national and European authorities and the Electricity Coordination Group. “We will coordinate efforts and share information to help restore the electricity system, and agreed to stay in close contact,” she said.
Life limping back to normalcy
Nearly 12 hours after outages were first reported from Spain and Portugal, authorities are still working on fully restoring all services. These include power, utilities and transportation. Meanwhile, hundreds of commuters remain stranded at train stations and airports.
Around mid-night local time, the Spanish authorities posted an update on X (formerly Twitter) saying, “The Government, other public administrations, and private operators are doing everything possible to restore normal supply as soon as possible. Some autonomous communities have already recovered 97% of their electricity supply, while others are at 13%.”
Spain’s Ministry of Transport also released a list of 33 railway stations that were functioning and would remain open overnight.
Inconvenience to travelers
W.Media had previously reported how the outage had brought road traffic, subway system and rail networks to a grinding halt with mass disruptions also reported across airports.
Our team spoke to a young woman, Pippa who was visiting Spain. “As a 19-year-old who doesn’t speak Spanish, with no wifi or way of contacting anyone, it’s very scary being stranded while trying to catch a flight.” Pippa explained how difficult it was to just make her way to the airport. “I got onto the bus to Madrid for what was meant to be a one-hour journey. However, this ended up being a 2 hours and 30 minutes long ordeal.” And in Madrid, things only got more intense “When we finally got off the bus, the metro was brimming with people. One could hardly walk, and some fights were breaking out in the crowd,” she said.
Pippa missed her original flight, and was eventually left with no other option but to share a cab with strangers to try and catch another flight. “Some people were hitchhiking, and taxis were full. So, it has now taken me two hours to get into a taxi to the airport and I am with three strangers.” With no other flights available, Pippa checked into a hotel near the airport.
Developing story
W.Media will be speaking to connectivity experts and posting updates to this story as it develops, so stay tuned. If you or a loved one are in Spain or Portugal, and would like to share your ordeal with us, please write to us at [email protected]