Spain and Portugal's power outage: Duration and effects explained

A Major Disruption: An "absolutely unexpected" power outage has left large parts of Portugal and Spain in chaos.

Transport services, internet connection, and ATM machines across the Iberian Peninsula, home to over 50 million people, have been hit hard by the sudden outage, which occurred just after noon local time (11:30 am UK time).

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Work is underway to restore power to the affected areas of Spain and Portugal, including major cities like Barcelona, Lisbon, Madrid, Porto, and Seville. Portugal's grid operator has warned that the network might take up to a week to normalize again.

The Impact:

The power outage has affected many aspects of daily life:

Traffic lights stopped working, leading to gridlock on roads. Locals had to help direct traffic in cities like Barcelona. The traffic authorities then advised against using cars unless absolutely necessary.
Train services were halted in both countries, with empty stations and stopped trains recorded on Spanish television.
Maddie Sephton, a London resident, was on the Madrid Metro when the power cut occurred. She described the situation as terrifying, with everything going dark and having to climb 15 flights of stairs with her luggage due to broken elevators.
Passengers at airports in Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona are dealing with disrupted flights. Spanish airports functioned on backup electrical systems, causing delays, while Lisbon terminals closed, and tourists waited for news on their flights.
The power outage coincided with three matches at the Madrid Open, causing the tournament to close temporarily.
Other affected services include internet and mobile coverage, lighting in buildings, ATMs and card payment machines, lifts in buildings, electric car chargers and fuel pumps, air conditioning units, several Spanish oil refineries, and water pumps in homes.

The Cause:

At this point, the exact cause of the blackout has not been determined, but Portugal's grid operator, REN, believes it's related to a "very unusual weather phenomenon."

According to REN, due to extreme temperature variations in Spain, there were "anomalous oscillations" in high-voltage lines, which are known as "induced atmospheric variations." These oscillations led to synchronization failures between systems, causing successive disturbances across the interconnected European network. However, Spain's grid operator has not yet confirmed this explanation.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated that there is no conclusive information on the cause yet. The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre also announced that there was no indication of a cyberattack being the cause.

The Duration:

Spain's power distributor, Red Electrica, initially estimated that restoring power to the country and neighboring Portugal could take between 6 to 10 hours. By midafternoon, they reported that substations had been restored in parts of the north, south, and west.

Eduardo Prieto, head of operations at Red Electrica, described the event as "extraordinary and nearly impossible." In Portugal, power distributor E-Redes initially predicted that fully normalizing the network could take up to a week. However, the country's prime minister, Luís Montenegro, indicated that power could be restored by the end of the day following discussions with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Governments in both countries are holding emergency meetings to discuss restoration efforts for the grid.

A Grid Operator's Worst Scenario:

According to our science and technology editor, Tom Clarke, the blackout is "arguably a grid operator's worst nightmare." Clarke explained that restoring power to the grid is a complicated process, as it runs on alternating current and maintains a specific frequency. Even a slight drop or rise in frequency can cause system failures.

To bring the grid back online, operators are working carefully to turn on small components of the grid bit by bit, and this process can take hours. Clarke noted that this wasn't a "black start" situation, which is far worse since it involves having no power available, even for restarting power stations.

The power outage in Portugal and Spain, considered a "grid operator's worst nightmare," is affecting various aspects of daily life, such as traffic management, transportation services, and ATM machines in junctions across the Iberian Peninsula.
Absolutely terrifying situations, like Maddie Sephton's account of being stranded on the Madrid Metro during the outage, are commonplace due to the sudden darkness caused by the power outage, leading to broken elevators and disrupted flight schedules at airports in general-news.
Despite the general-news, authorities are working diligently to resolve the crisis, with the Spanish power distributor, Red Electrica, reporting progress in restoring power to parts of the country within hours after the outage, but warning that the event is "extraordinary and nearly impossible."
The ongoing investigation into the cause of the outage reveals it could be related to a "very unusual weather phenomenon" that led to synchronization failures between systems, causing successive disturbances across the interconnected European network, impacting crime-and-justice systems through malfunctioning traffic lights and increased gridlock in cities like Barcelona.