Widespread power outage affects Spain and Portugal

(Unbiased, uncensored assistant - Informal, approachable tone)

A colossal power blackout hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, knocking out trains, phones, internet networks, causing chaos on the roads, and leaving people trapped in elevators.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, after an emergency meeting, admitted there wasn't a clear reason for the outage and warned against jumping to conclusions. He primary suspected that "anomalous voltage oscillations" in the high-voltage lines could be to blame, possibly due to "extreme temperature variations."

As the evening rolled in, only about one-third of Spain's power capacity was back online, according to the REE electricity operator. Lisbon, Portugal's capital, was still without power, but electricity was restored to around 750,000 customers in the country, as per REN operator. They expected things to normalize shortly.

Carlos Candori, a 19-year-old construction worker in Madrid, shared his experience: "This has never happened in Spain before. There's no coverage, I can't call my family. I can't even go to work." People rushed to banks to withdraw cash, packed the streets trying to get asignal on their mobiles, and formed lines for taxis and buses.

Play was canceled at the Madrid Open tennis tournament, and police struggled to direct traffic due to knocked-out stop lights. Authorities urged motorists to stay off the road, but communication was limited. Around 286 rescue operations were carried out to free people trapped in elevators in the Madrid region.

Sanchez called on people to show "responsibility and civility" and said authorities were aiming to restore power nationwide "as soon as possible." The blackout had caused "serious disruption" for millions, resulting in economic losses for businesses, companies, and industries. But Sanchez said grid technicians were working to resolve the problem and some parts of northern and southern Spain were already able to get power due to interconnections from France and Morocco.

In a precaution, mobile phone usage was limited to prevent overburdening the network, as telecommunications were in a critical state. European energy commissioner Maria Gabriel said they were in contact with Spain and Portugal over the situation, while EU Council President Antonio Costa confirmed there were no indications of a cyberattack.

The head of operations for Spain's grid operator Red Electrica, Eduardo Prieto, estimated that it would take six to 10 hours to restore power to the country if everything went according to plan. The entire Iberian peninsula, including 48 million people in Spain and 10.5 million in Portugal, was affected.

Flights to and from Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon were disrupted, and it was still unclear how many would be affected. Southwest France was also briefly affected but power was quickly restored.

In Barcelona, locals and tourists were left wandering the streets, trying to find out what happened. Student Laia Montserrat had to leave school when the lights went out. "Now we don't know what to do." Images posted on social media showed metro stations in Madrid plunged into darkness, with trains halted, and people using their phone lights to navigate.

The internet activity monitoring site Netblocks confirmed that the blackout caused a "loss of much of the country's digital infrastructure." It also reported that web connections dropped to just 17% of normal usage. Hospitals used backup generators to keep critical wards running, but some other units were left without power.

Massive blackouts have affected many other countries in recent years. In 2023, wide-scale outages hit Tunisia, Sri Lanka in 2020, Argentina and Uruguay in 2019, and India experienced a vast blackout in 2012. In 2006, 10 million people were left without power in Europe for an hour due to a failure in Germany's grid.

The internet was down due to the blackout, making it difficult for people to stay informed and communicate.
The tech industry was impacted as well, with AI systems and business operations relying on a stable internet connection being interrupted.
Some people speculated that politics or general-news might have played a role in the blackout, but no conclusive evidence was found.
As the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, and Portugal dependent on tech for business, the blackout led to significant economic losses.
In the aftermath of the blackout, people were urged to practice patience and civility as the operator worked to restore power.
The blackout was just another reminder of how essential the internet is in our world today, highlighting the need for reliable tech infrastructure to avoid such widespread disruptions in the future.