MADRID, April 28, 2025—A colossal power outage struck Spain and Portugal on Monday, plunging millions into darkness, halting transportation, and upending daily life across the Iberian Peninsula. The blackout, which began around 12:30 p.m. local time, also grazed southern France and Andorra, marking one of Europe’s most severe electrical failures in decades. Cities like Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Seville ground to a standstill as lights flickered out, trains stopped dead, and traffic lights went dark. The outage hit like a sledgehammer.
In Madrid, commuters spilled out of darkened metro stations, some climbing 15 flights of stairs with luggage when elevators failed. Lisbon’s streets turned chaotic as drivers navigated intersections without functioning traffic lights, while police scrambled to manage gridlock. Airports, including Madrid-Barajas and Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado, switched to emergency generators, but flight delays piled up, stranding thousands. Spain’s railway operator, Renfe, reported a complete halt of train services nationwide, with no departures possible until at least 6 p.m. In Portugal, the Lisbon and Porto metros shut down, and Fertagus trains froze at stations. Hospitals leaned heavily on backup generators, suspending non-emergency surgeries but maintaining critical care. Businesses shuttered as card payment systems and ATMs went offline, forcing cash-only transactions in the few shops that stayed open.
Supermarkets in both countries saw panic-buying, with shelves stripped of water and groceries as residents braced for prolonged disruptions. Some homes lost access to drinking water, adding to the chaos. At the Madrid Open tennis tournament, play stopped mid-match, leaving players like Grigor Dimitrov and spectators in the dark as scoreboards and cameras failed. Spain’s grid operator, Red Eléctrica, reported a catastrophic drop in electricity demand—from 27,500 megawatts to under 13,000 in seconds—caused by “very strong oscillations” that severed Spain’s grid from Europe’s.
Portugal’s operator, REN, pointed to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” linked to extreme temperature swings in Spain’s interior, which triggered “anomalous oscillations” in high-voltage lines. These disturbances cascaded across the interconnected European network, causing what REN called a “synchronization failure.” A separate report noted a fire on France’s Alaric mountain damaging a key power line, though its role remains unconfirmed. Restoration efforts began swiftly but faced daunting challenges. By mid-afternoon, power returned to parts of Spain’s Basque Country, Catalonia, and Andalusia, with Red Eléctrica estimating six to ten hours to fully restore service.
Portugal’s REN warned that normalizing the grid could take up to a week due to the outage’s complexity. France’s grid operator, RTE, quickly stabilized its network and offered emergency power to Spain, as did Morocco. Spain’s nuclear power plants automatically shut down as designed, with diesel generators keeping them stable. Governments mobilized fast. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez held crisis meetings at Red Eléctrica’s headquarters, joined by key ministers, while Portugal’s cabinet convened at the prime minister’s residence. Madrid’s mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, urged residents to stay put to ease pressure on emergency services, and the regional government of Andalusia called for army deployment to maintain order.
Both countries’ cybersecurity agencies investigated a possible cyberattack, but no evidence has surfaced, and European Council President Antonio Costa dismissed such claims for now. Sánchez warned against spreading unverified rumors, urging “responsible” use of strained mobile networks. The outage laid bare the fragility of Europe’s power grid, recalling Italy’s 2003 blackout and a 2006 German failure that rippled across multiple nations. As dusk approached, operators raced to restore power before solar generation dropped, which could slash a third of Spain’s supply. In Lisbon, commuters trudged through darkened streets; in Madrid, restaurants scribbled bills by flashlight. The full scope of the disruption—affecting over 50 million people across both countries—remains unclear, but the impact will linger for days.