Barcelona station closed after the current. Photo: Emilio Moretti / AP / Profimedia
The Spanish Ministry of Interior said on Monday the emergency in the country after an electric current has affected most of the Iberian peninsula. The ministry added that the state of emergency will be applied in the regions that will request this status. So far, Madrid, Andalusia and Extramadura have asked the central government to ensure public order and other functions.
Much of Spain and Portugal was affected by a power break on Monday that blocked road traffic, kept the ground aircraft, blocked people in elevators and forced operators to make important efforts to restore electricity for millions of households and companies. The hospitals were forced to interrupt some of their activity, and the governments of the two countries convened emergency meetings, after officials initially said that a cyber attack cannot be excluded, reports BFMTV TV, quoted by News.ro.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in the first part of the evening that he does not have conclusive information on the causes of damage, adding that the situation does not put public safety issues, but urged the population to limit the use of phones.
The operator of the Portuguese electrical grid, REN, mentioned extreme temperature variations in Spain, which would have caused abnormal oscillations in high voltage lines, with consequences on synchronization between networks and chain disturbances on the interconnected European network. The full return to normal could take up to a week, the company added.
According to Reuters journalists, the current began to return at the beginning of the afternoon in Spain, in the Basque Country and Barcelona, after a few hours of electricity interruption, without knowing how long it could be restored on a larger scale. Hospitals in Madrid and Catalonia suspended all current medical activities, but continued to take care of the patients in critical condition with the help of reserve generators.
Several Spanish oil refineries have been stopped, and the stores were closed.
Live massive current breakdown in Spain, Portugal and in areas of France. Chaos in car traffic, in stations and airports / Madrid government has declared an emergency / surprising hypothesis – video
Not the hypothesis of a cyber attack is not excluded
The Bank of Spain said that electronic banking services work “correctly” due to the reserve systems, although the inhabitants have reported ATMs that do not work.
The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martinez-Almeida, appealed to X to the inhabitants of the Capital to limit his travel and stay where they are, adding: “It is essential that the emergency services can circulate.”
The Spanish radio stations indicated that part of the Madrid subway was under evacuation and reported traffic jams after the traffic lights stopped working.
E-Redes, the Spanish electrical network monitoring company, previously said in a statement that it works on the gradual restoration of electricity supply. The operation will depend on several factors, but the simulations indicates that it would take between six and ten hours, said later, adding that it had never faced a breakdown.
The authorities could not explain the cause of the interruption immediately, but the possibility of a cyber attack was not excluded and investigations are being conducted.
The last incident of such magnitude in Europe took place in 2006, when a problem at the high voltage network in Germany caused current interruptions in certain parts of the country, as well as in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and until Morocco.
