On April 28, a number of European countries began reporting large-scale power outages. Millions of people in Spain, Portugal, and Andorra were left without power.
Points of attention
- Portugal's national electricity company REN has cited a possible cause of the problem as a fire in southwestern France, on Mount Alaric.
- Three countries experienced power outages.
Large-scale blackout in Europe: what are the reasons?
The official cause of the blackout is not yet known, but Spain's two largest electricity companies, Endesa and Iberdrola, are already investigating the incident.
Meanwhile, Portugal's national electricity company REN said a possible cause of the problem was a fire in southwestern France, on Mount Alaric. The fire damaged a high-voltage power line between Perpignan and eastern Narbonne.
According to media reports, at around 12:30 (local time - ed.) a widespread power outage occurred in Spain - consumption was around 25,184 megawatts, it suddenly dropped to 12,425 megawatts.
According to available data, the outage occurred on the mainland, so it did not affect the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta or Melilla. It is known that there are six isolated systems in the Canary Islands, one per island. They are isolated from mainland Spain and from each other.
It is known that some hospitals, which were left without electricity, have a critical situation. In some buildings, there are even people stuck in elevators.
The outages also affected metros in major cities. In particular, in Madrid, the subway announced a suspension of operations, while Barcelona metro workers confirmed that trains in the Catalan capital were also stopped and passengers were evacuated through tunnels.
Portugal is also experiencing power outages. Media reports say the problems began almost simultaneously with Spain, around noon.
The disruptions paralyzed the normal operation of infrastructure, communications, stations, airports, enterprises, and buildings.
Power outages were also recorded in Andorra and partially in France.
According to the latest information, other failures are being reported as far away as Belgium.
