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Spain Warns Widespread Blackout May Last Another 10 Hours….. THIS IS A MAJOR CYBER ATTACK
By API User | April 28, 2025
- Most of Spain and Portugal are suffering a major blackout
- Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of the outage
- Transport links have been disrupted, with some issues reported at airports
- Spain warns that it may take ten hours to restore power
- France is supplying power to Spain and has offered to provide more
Update on refineries: All of Repsol’s oil-processing units in Spain are suffering disruptions because of the blackout. It’s not clear if fuels production has been reduced or whether the facilities have been taken offline.
The four main plants — Cartagena, Bilbao, Tarragona and Puertollano — can process about 775,000 barrels a day of crude, according to Bloomberg estimates
Updated 5m ago
Spain’s grid operator Red Electrica has managed to restore power in some substations across several zones in the north, south and west of the country, according to an update posted on X.
“We keep working with all of our resources to restore the energy supply as quick as possible in all territory,” it says.
Updated 8m ago
Here’s our latest mainbar, with some clues now of what might have caused this huge problem. The outage was triggered by sudden changes on the network, known as oscillations, it seems. More to follow no doubt.
Sharp Power Swings Trigger Major Blackout in Spain, Portugal
Heavy traffic caused by failed traffic lights, in Madrid.
Portugal’s National Cybersecurity Center says no evidence has been found so far that points to a cyberattack for the failure of the electrical grid, according to news agency Lusa. That echoes the initial investigation of the EU’s Agency for Cybersecurity.
And Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president at the European Commission and former Spanish energy minister, also said there’s no evidence of a cyber attack.
“The main priority, of course, is to restore the electricity system and to assess and to understand what has happened,” she told reporters on the steps of the European Parliament.
Latest headlines coming in from Spain’s grid operator:
- Spain’s Red Electrica Restored Power in North, South, West Areas
- Red Electrica Says Power Restored in Some Substations in X Post
Updated 18m ago
It’s not just airlines and airports affected today. Public transport services have also been hit by the power issues, and there are queues as people wait for buses and trains.
People wait at a crowded bus stop in central Madrid. Source: Bloomberg
Some more news from airlines on how they’ve been affected by the blackout. Iberia said its systems are fully operational, but the Spanish carrier is allowing passengers with flights scheduled for today to change their tickets for another time.
“Given the difficulties in different airports, we offer all passengers traveling today the possibility to change their travel for another time,” the company says in a X post.
Low cost carrier Vueling said it’s working to minimize the outage’s impact on its operations. “Some of our flights may be affected,” it said on X.
Spain’s biggest fuel-maker Repsol has been forced to take its Bilbao oil refinery in northern Spain offline in the widespread power blackout.
Regional fuel supply will be closely watched, with at least two refineries on France’s west coast curbing output currently. Repsol also operates refineries in Tarragona, Puertollano and Cartagena.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is set to head an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, which has been called to discuss the blackout. Earlier, Sanchez headed a crisis meeting at the offices of Red Electrica, the national grid operator.
A dead ATM in Lisbon. Photographer: Zed Jameson/Bloomberg
Updated 39m ago
It’s no surprise that it will take the Spanish grid some hours to start back up. With such an extensive outage, there is a meticulous process to get things up and running again called a black start. Grid operators have plans in place for this that they hope to never use.
It’s a process to build the grid back up in a stable way, recreating the careful balance between supply and demand that was somehow broken.
A dark metro station in Madrid during the power outage. Source: Anadolu/Getty Images
In Lisbon, the city’s main airport says on its website that the power cut may affect operations.
Dylan Fraser, a US national from Stafford, Virginia, went to the airport earlier on Monday to catch a flight back to the US only to be informed through loudspeaker that his flight had been cancelled.
“They told us we had to leave the airport because it was closing,” Fraser said as he sat at the bar of the Sofitel Hotel in downtown Lisbon. “I have no idea when I will be able to go back.”
Initial investigations into the cause of the outages suggest a technical fault rather than a cyberattack, according to the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).
“For the moment the investigation seems to point out to a technical/cable issue,” said a spokesperson for the agency in an emailed statement. “Nevertheless, ENISA is closelymonitoring the situation and we are in contact with the relevant authorities at national and EU level.”
The Spanish grid operator, Red Electrica, is working on restoring the supply but doing so fully will take between 6 and 10 hours, Eduardo Prieto, a company executive, said at a press conference. The outage is due to large variations in power on the grid.
I’ve been out on the streets of downtown Madrid, which are teeming with people trying to get home after many companies closed their offices because of the power outage. Shop employees were waiting outside businesses, while some restaurants remained open but were only accepting payments in cash.
Traffic police were trying to bring order to massive traffic jams. At a convenience store, people were buying flashlights, batteries, radios, camping gas, firewood and portable stoves.
A person shops at a supermarket using the torch of a smartphone, in Tremp, Spain. Photographer: Javier Mostacero Carrera/Getty Images Europe
The European Commission said it’s in contact with authorities in Spain and Portugal as well as the European Network of Transmission System Operators about today’s outage. A spokesperson said:
“The Commission will keep monitoring the situation and make sure that there is smooth information exchange amongst all relevant parties. As per EU legislation in place (emergency and restoration network code), there are protocols in place to restore the functioning of the system.”
Here’s our updated story:
Spain and Portugal Hit With Worst European Blackout in Years
Spain’s competition authority CNMC suspended a meeting to discuss BBVA’s bid to acquire Banco Sabadell due to the power blackout. The CNMC had been set to issue a final decision on the bid today.
And following on from BNEF estimating that power restoration may take hours, here are the latest headlines from the grid operator on that point:
- Red Electrica Says Restoring All Supply May Take up to 10 Hours
- Red Electrica Says ‘Various Hours’ Needed to Restore Supply
Updated 1h 4m ago
French grid operator RTE said it has already supplied 700MW of power for consumption in Spain and is ready to raise that to 950MW once the network is able to receive it. That’s equal to about to one large power station.
RTE added in a post on X that households in the French Basque Country had earlier suffered a blackout of a few minutes only and that electricity had been restored.
There’s no communication from authorities yet on the cause of the blackout. Still, according to Berryman at BloombergNEF, there are not that many things that can cause country-wide blackouts.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez held a crisis meeting at the headquarters of grid operator
Red Electrica to monitor the situation. Energy Minister Sara Aagesen also took part in the meeting.
A bar owner holds up an analogue radio transmitting news about the power outage in Barcelona, on April 28. Photographer: Sandra Montanez/Getty Images Europe
Red Electrica Says Spanish Blackout Due to Grid Oscillation
More than 10 gigawatts of power going offline in one instance is “such a rare event” that it’s “hard to have a reference point” for just how much time it will take to bring the grid back up to normal operation, says Ian Berryman, head of energy systems modeling at BloombergNEF. It could be hours, he said.
Traffic during the power outage on Plaza Colon in central Madrid. Photographer: Ben Sills/Bloomberg
Updated 1h 29m ago
Repsol’s Petronor refinery in Spain’s Basque Country said it halted all units at 12:30 p.m. due to a lack of electricity. As part of the security stoppage, black smoke was released.
France stands ready to help Spain:
- France’s Rte Says Ready to Provide 950mw of Power to Spain
- French Grid Operator Says Supplied 700mw of Power to Spain
- French Grid Operator Rte Comments on X
Updated 1h 33m ago
Regular business life is being disrupted, it seems.
CORRECT: Following up on Javier’s post on Spain power demand, data from grid operator Red Electrica showed it was in freefall just after noon, dropping more than 10 gigawatts. That’s more than a third of the country’s total electricity need Monday.
The website is now down and the data feed can’t be accessed. It’s not clear if that’s because of the power outage or because too many people are trying to access the data now.
(Corrects spelling of reporter’s name.)
Updated 1h 37m ago
The Spanish government should declare a so-called Level 3 emergency to allow the Army to deploy and “preserve order if necessary,” Madrid regional President Isabel Diaz Ayuso, one of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s most vocal critics, said.
Traffic lights not working due to a power outage in central Madrid. Photographer: Ben Sills/Bloomberg
Updated 1h 43m ago
Airlines are keeping a close eye on developments, and the main Madrid airport has cautioned that it’s experiencing a high degree of delays because of electrical equipment outage on the ground.
Discount carrier Ryanair said it’s “monitoring potential disruption to flights operating to/from all airports in mainland Spain and Portugal.”
Updated 1h 34m ago
While it’s too early to tell what caused this outage, the UK offers a potential clue.
Back in August 2019, there was a major blackout across London and the surrounding areas when two major power generators, a wind farm and a gas plant, unexpectedly shut off almost simultaneously during a lightning storm. Grid operators struggle to cope with such major unplanned shifts in supply or demand happening at the same time and that’s one possibility this time in Spain.
Here’s Madrid’s mayor on the situation in the city.
“I ask all people in Madrid to absolutely minimize displacements and, whenever possible, to stay where they are at the moment and keep roads clear. The traffic lights are down at the moment and it’s essential that emergency services can circulate.”
Updated 1h 49m ago
Data from Spain’s national grid shows a massive drop in power demand in a few seconds, Javier Blas notes: