Blackout in Spain, everything OK except Galicia and 5-10% of phones. Causes: anomalous weather phenomenon excluded

In the communication Renfe asks passengers not to travel to stations in the region until further notice. And it points out that they can request a refund or exchange of tickets via online channels.

Mobile phones are ringing again in Spain after a day of silence related to yesterday's mega blackout. This morning Vodafone reported that 95% of mobile traffic was already restored; Telefónica, another telephone operator, reported that 90% of its network was back to normal. This was reported by El Pais.

"After a busy night, 99.95 per cent of the energy demand was restored" after yesterday's maxi blackout, "and 100 per cent of the substations of the transport network were restored".

This was written by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in a message on X, in which he thanked the citizenship 'for once again being an example of responsibility and civic-mindedness', despite the considerable inconveniences. Sanchez informed of the new extraordinary meeting of the National Security Council underway since this morning at Moncloa, to analyse the causes and the current situation.

There is reportedly the first victim of yesterday's blackout in Spain. A woman died in Madrid, in the Carabanchel area, in a fire at her home. This was reported by El Pais, which quoted the fire brigade as saying that the fire may have been caused by a candle that the woman had lit to illuminate the house.The emergency services confirmed the woman's death, while 13 other people were treated at the scene and five admitted to hospital.

Yesterday morning, the mega blackout hit the whole of Spain shortly after 12.30 a.m., also affecting neighbouring Portugal, and even parts of France. The power outage halted the subways of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville, knocked out traffic lights and left the Barajas Airport without power.

The interruption also caused problems with telephone lines.

According to the French operator, the Iberian network was automatically disconnected from the European one from 12:38 to 13:30, at which time the 400kV power line operating between French and Spanish Catalonia was restored.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated that he "does not exclude any hypothesis" as to the causes of the blackout that affected the Iberian Peninsula and asked citizens to pay attention only to the news disseminated through "official channels".

Sanchez also urged the population not to speculate: 'The causes are still being studied. It is better not to speculate,' he said during his speech from the Moncloa Palace, in which he also urged citizens to use mobile phones responsibly.

The PM thanked France and Morocco for their solidarity and cooperation that allowed the restoration of electricity supply in the northern and southern areas of Spain.

On the generalised power failure, the National Institute of Cybersecurity (Incibe) investigates whether it was caused by a cyber attack.

They claim from Ren that the electricity outage in Portugal was the result of 'a problem in the Spanish grid'.

Checks continue to exclude possible systemic problems or external attacks.

The electricity blackout in Spain also affected some municipalities in the south of France, not far from the Spanish border, particularly in Occitania, especially in the area of Perpignan, the so-called French Catalonia.

"During the day of 28 April, no abnormal weather or atmospheric phenomena were detected in Spain, not even abrupt variations in temperatures in our network of meteorological stations.

This was clarified today by the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (Amet) in a message on social channels. In this way, the hypothesis, put forward yesterday by the Portuguese Electricity Network, of a very atypical phenomenon, with strong variations in temperature, which would have caused severe fluctuations on the high voltage lines, upstream of the massive blackout that caused the paralysis of communications and many services in Spain, loses substance.

The origin of the blackout that also affected Portugal would be in Spain. The Portuguese Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, told the media. "We know that the origin was not in Portugal," Montenegro said, quoted by the Efe news agency. "We know that we have connections" electrical "with Spain and everything indicates that it was where this situation began, but I don't want to speculate," he added, without giving any indication of the possible causes of the blackout.

"Extreme temperature fluctuations in Spain" allegedly contributed to the blackout that affected the Iberian Peninsula. This was reported by the Portuguese operator Ren (Rede Eletrica Nacional), quoted by the BBC. "Due to extreme temperature variations in inland Spain, abnormal oscillations occurred in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as "induced atmospheric vibration"," Ren reports. "These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to subsequent disturbances along the interconnected European grid.

Due to the massive power outage that hit Spain, the Atp Masters 1000 and Wta 1000 tennis tournament in Madrid was also suspended yesterday. The Atp Tour stated that two singles matches and one doubles match were in progress when a power outage occurred at 12:34 local time.

The Prado Museum in Madrid evacuated the public that was crowding its halls.

With regard to the ongoing blackout in Spain and some regions of Portugal and France, there are currently no operational criticalities on the national electricity transmission grid. This was announced by Terna, the Italian company that manages the electricity transmission grids.

"The situation is very serious and we are navigating in the dark: at the moment there are no indications as to what triggered the collapse of the electricity system. But nothing can be ruled out, from a hacker attack to sabotage to some vital transmission infrastructure."

This is how Davide Tabarelli, an expert at Nomisma Energia, comments on the maxi blackout in Spain, Portugal and part of southern France, stating that there could also be 'a fire in south-eastern France that has knocked out an import line. It will take hours to bring the Spanish electricity service back to normal'.

(Article being updated)