8th April 2025: A sweeping power outage lasting roughly a day left millions of people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France without electricity, leading to chaotic scenes and widespread disruption. The authorities have ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack and of an electricity surge caused by renewable sources for this serious and widespread power which caused of one of Europe's biggest ever power system collapses. Utility provider Red Electrica has suggested there was a "strong oscillation in the power flow" in Spain which triggered "a very significant loss of generation".
Aurora Energy analysts said the frequency of the grid dropped from the nominal 50Hz to 49.85Hz, triggering automatic emergency protocols.
"The frequency decline likely began due to severe oscillations in high-voltage lines in southern France or inland Spain. Hypotheses include a physical fault (line disconnection), a sudden loss of generation within Spain or an atmospheric phenomenon," said one analyst.
Utility provider REE has suggested that the source of the outage may be linked to two separate incidents of loss of generation in substations in southwestern Spain, but says it has yet to identify their exact location and that it is 'too early to explain what caused them'.
The loss of generation went beyond the load the electrical systems are designed to handle and the Spanish grid was disconnected from the European system. The electric grid suffered two “disconnection events”, causing instability in the system. The system recovered from the first event, but the second caused a widespread blackout, said the REE. Power outages can also happen when there are faults at power stations, power distribution lines, substations or other parts of the system.
Around 500 planes were cancelled due to the blackout which affected airports. Oil refineries have began operating again and life is slowly returning to normal after the power cuts. Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met with grid operators asking for their co-operation in finding the cause, he said:
"We must undertake the necessary improvements to guarantee the supply and future competitiveness of our system.”
It is reported that Portugal has now fully recovered from its blackout, with power restored to all 6.4 million electricity clients. No estimates are available as yet on the total cost of the major power outage.
More from
Electric
.jpg)
.jpg)
