The Portuguese operator of the REN network said at noon that the “entire Iberian Peninsula” was affected by part of France. In Portugal, the power source was interrupted from 11:33 in the morning (local time, 12.33 CEST).
In Madrid and Barcelona, many people ran down the streets and stretched their mobile phones in the air in search of a reception. Traffic lights no longer worked, the police tried to regulate the movement, the cars were forced to drive slowly. The Internet networks did not work anymore, people are stuck in elevators, as the Spanish media reports.
The Spanish road administration DGT called on drivers not to walk the streets. The shutdown “led to the interruption of railway traffic throughout the network,” said the operator of the Spanish railway network Adif in the online service X. According to the Aena operator, there were delays in the Spanish airports, but the operation works thanks to “emergency energy systems”.
“Do not speculate about the reason”
The operator of the Spanish network announced in the afternoon that to restore the power source it will require “from six to ten hours.” “If everything goes well, you can talk about a period from six to ten hours,” said the head of the service department of the network operator Red Electrica, Eduardo Proteto, radio station Cadena Ser. In some places, the network is already “already repaired,” he added.
He took advised not to quit his assumptions about the reason for the refusal of the authorities. “We cannot speculate about the reasons at the moment,” he said. Everything is analyzed with the necessary accuracy, as soon as it is possible to clarify the origin of power failure.
According to the President of the EU Council Antonio Costa, at present there are no signs of cyber attacks as the causes of a large-scale energy failure in Spain and Portugal. Network operators in both countries are currently looking for the reason, the Portuguese also wrote on X.