Spain and Portugal hit by massive power outage

A massive power outage has affected Spain and Portugal, shutting down airports, businesses and railway stations.

All of Spain – except the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands – has suffered a blackout, with Portugal and parts of France also reportedly impacted.

Spain's national railway company, Renfe, has said the country's "entire National Electricity Grid was cut off”. 

Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said in a post on X there is an ongoing investigation into the cause of the blackout and that parts of the north and south of Spain have begun “to recover voltage”.

Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, has said there is "no indication" of a cyber-attack. 

However, last night, Spanish President Pedro Sanchez confirmed there is no "conclusive information" yet on what caused the blackout and warns about misinformation on the power outage. 

Cristina Barbera, a 31-year-old who lives in Madrid told Holyrood: “I prefer not to stop and think about it too much, but this could be a wake-up call about all that’s going on in the world”.

Nuria Navarro, who works at a local school, also in Madrid, admitted it was “a bit scary” but that everything has now “calmed” down.

“The first 20 minutes were a bit chaotic; parents were rushing to pick their kids up”, she said. 

Yesterday, Red Electrica estimated it would take six to 10 hours for the entire grid to operate again. As of 7:30 am today, the operator confirmed 99.95 per cent of demand had been restored.

Red Electrica has now ruled out a cyber-attack as the cause of the outage.