Emily Day
A massive power outage on April 28, 2025, interrupted daily life across Spain, Portugal, and parts of France. The blackout, which started around 12:30 pm local time, stopped subway and train operations, closed airports in Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona, disabled traffic lights, and disrupted phone and ATM services throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Just prior to the blackout, Spain’s electricity network website showed a steep drop in demand from 27,500 megawatts (MW) to about 15,000 MW. Spain’s nuclear safety council confirmed that the country’s nuclear reactors are in “safe condition” despite the outage and that emergency generators have kicked in.
Between Spain and Portugal, the two countries have over fifty million inhabitants, though the exact number impacted is not yet known. Authorities believe power should largely be restored within six to ten hours, however, full normalization of grid operations could take as long as a week. French grid operator RTE is helping to restore power, already resupplying 700 MW, and will increase aid as the Iberian grid is able to receive it.
The cause of the outage has not yet been confirmed, though Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, and Portugal’s Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, have emphasized that there are no indications of a cyberattack at this point. Portugal’s grid operator, REN, attributed the supply interruptions to a “fault in the Spanish electricity grid” related to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” caused by extreme temperature variations. Both REN and Spain’s power grid operator, Red Eléctrica, reported that a “strong oscillation in the electrical network” caused Spain’s grid to disconnect from the broader European system.
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