Panic buying has swept Spain and Portugal as nationwide blackouts paralysed both countries, shutting down transport networks and prompting people to clear supermarket shelves amid fears the chaos could last for days.
Huge queues formed outside shops and banks as residents and tourists desperately sought to stockpile essentials and take out cash as much cash as they could amid the uncertainty.
Rows of cars were pictured lining up at petrol stations as people hoped to fill up their vehicles and fuel cans, with ex-pats detailing how they have tried to power generators to keep their homes going.
Airports have also been hit, with flights delayed and cancelled and holidaymakers in Portugal warned not to travel to airports until further notice.
Madrid’s Mayor urged people in the city to stay where they were as the disaster unfolded, while the president of the city’s regional government called for Spain’s prime minister to activate an emergency plan to allow for soldiers to be deployed.
Portugal’s electricity grid operator warned that it is ‘impossible’ to say when the power supply would be fully restored, adding that while ‘all resources’ were deployed to resolve the issues, it could take up to a week to fix.
The operator said that the disruptions to the country’s power supply were the result of a ‘fault in the Spanish electricity grid,’ which was related to a ‘rare atmospheric phenomenon’.
It said that extreme temperature variations along the grid had led to ‘anomalous oscillations’ in very high-voltage power lines – an effect known as ‘induced atmospheric variation’ – which leads to power oscillations throughout the grid.
This causes the voltage and frequency of some parts of the grid to get out of sync with the rest of the grid, leading to irregular or excessive power flow to some areas, damaging equipment and triggering widespread power failures.
According to REN, these oscillations lead to ‘successive disturbances across the interconnected European network’ which caused today’s blackouts.
Power outages gripped Spain at around 12.30 local time, plunging millions into darkness. Spain’s nuclear power plants automatically stopped, but diesel generators were activated to keep them in ‘safe condition’, officials said.
Trains and metro services were shut down in both countries, with people stuck in tunnels and on railway tracks, forcing evacuations. Lisbon’s main airport was reportedly shut down temporarily with flights suspended.
A director at Spain’s electricity grid operator said just before 3pm local time that the outage is ‘exceptional and totally extraordinary’ and will take between six and 10 hours to repair.
Power has since returned to parts of north, south, west of the country, REN said.
The power cuts come just days after Spain’s power grid ran entirely on renewable energy, including wind, solar and hyrdro power, for a whole day for the first time on April 16.
Spanish officials are urgently investigating the cause of the outages and have said they are looking into the possibility of the blackouts being triggered by a devastating cyber attack.
Videos online show railway networks in Spanish cities plunged into chaos, with people being evacuated through tunnels as blackouts hit underground stations and halted trains.
Maddie Sephton, from London, was on the Madrid Metro when the power outage occurred, told Sky News that she was stuck on a train for 20 minutes before a staff member pried the doors open manually.
‘We got on the train and everything was fine. But then everything went dark,’ she said. Passengers had to climb 15 flights of stairs to get out of the metro.
An ex-pat called Lesley, has lived in Spain for 11 years with her husband, told the BBC that they are concerned about the effects of the outages.
‘We are worried about food, water, cash and petrol in case this goes on for a couple of days,’ she said.
‘My husband is driving around now trying to find a petrol station that’s open to get petrol for the generator so that we can plug in the fridge.’
Parts of France also lost power after the outages in Spain and Portugal, the country’s grid operator confirmed. Further outages have been reported as far as Belgium, according to the latest information.
The cause of the outages is not yet clear, with the Spanish government saying it is working to ‘identify the origin’.
A fire on the Alaric mountain in the south-west of France which damaged a high-voltage power line has also been identified as a possible cause, Portugal’s national electric company REN said.
Airports were also affected, with emergency generators turned on at Porto and Faro airport, but operations ‘limited’ at Lisbon, according to officials.
Parts of Madrid’s sprawling metro system have been evacuated and traffic lights in the capital have stopped working, posing risk on major carriageways.
REN, Portugal’s grid operator says that the widespread blackouts over Spain and Portugal have been caused by a ‘rare atmospheric phenomenon’.
The operator says that extreme temperature variations along the grid had led to ‘anomalous oscillations’ in very high-voltage power lines.
This effect, known as ‘induced atmospheric variation’ leads to power oscillations throughout the grid.
This causes the voltage and frequency of some parts of the grid to get out of sync with the rest of the grid.
The differences between the different sections can lead to irregular or excessive power flow to some areas, damaging equipment and triggering widespread power failures.
According to REN, these oscillations lead to ‘successive disturbances across the interconnected European network’ which caused today’s blackouts.
Temperature differences lead to oscillations in the grid, primarily due to the sudden imbalance of electricity demand.
When one area on the grid is exceptionally hot, the demand for electricity increases as people turn on air conditioning units to cool their homes.
When the fluctuations between high-demand and low-demand areas are large enough, it can trigger oscillations capable of causing synchronisation issues.
The outage is also said to have forced the closure of Barcelona’s tram system and stopped some traffic lights in the city from working.
Internet and telephone lines across the country are also down.
Meanwhile play has been suspended at the Madrid Open tennis tournament.
Spanish oil refiner Petronor said all units at its Bilbao oil refinery were shut down, ‘fully ensuring safety conditions, and all emergency systems are operating correctly,’ the company said.
All of Valencia and Barcelona were left without power, Spain’s entire rail network shut down, internet services stopped working and there was chaos on the streets as traffic built up in Madrid and Lisbon.
‘A crisis committee has been set up to manage the situation [in Spain]. At this stage there’s no evidence yet regarding the cause of the massive blackout,’ an official briefed on the situation in Spain told Politico.
‘A cyberattack has not been ruled out and investigations are ongoing,’ they added.
Spain’s INCIBE cybersecurity agency is investigating the possibility of the blackout being triggered by a cyber attack.
A spokesman for the European Union Agency for Cyber Security, said in a statement: ‘We are monitoring the whole thing very closely, right now the investigation is still ongoing and whether it is a cyber attack has not been confirmed yet.’
The Spanish government said it is working to ‘identify the origin’ of the blackouts, with officials saying they are still gathering evidence.
Backup generators have meant Spain’s hospitals have been spared the worst of the power outages, with videos
Some have suspended non-emergency surgeries, however emergency power supplies have kept essential equipment such as ventilators and cardiac monitors running.
A British expat living in Barcelona told that ‘nobody seems to know what’s going on’ in Spain ‘because nobody has signal’.
The English teacher said he only found out about the European blackout from British reports.
‘I can get signal on my rooftop, but I can’t get signal down below. One floor down I have nothing,’ they said.
‘The traffic lights are still working… The underground is not working apparently. Lots of parts of the public transport are not working.’
Spanish railway company Renfe said that all trains have halted and no departures are currently taking place, with a power outage at a ‘national level’.
Spain’s electricity grid operator Red Eléctrica wrote on X: ‘Plans to restore the electricity supply have been activated in collaboration with companies in the sector following the zero that occurred in the peninsular system.
‘The causes are being analyzed and all resources are being dedicated to solving it. We will continue to report.’
Lottie Feist, 23, who lives in Lisbon, told of panic across the Portuguese capital as traffic lights cut out.
The translation student at Nova University said: ‘There is no electricity, nothing is working.
‘We don’t know what’s happening or why we are having a blackout.
‘The roads are absolute carnage as no traffic lights are working.
‘All the power is down, and businesses are being impacted.
‘It’s terrifying, people will be stuck in elevators, and everything has completely shut down.’
In the Spanish city of Valencia, Metrovalencia which runs the city’s urban rail system said traffic was ‘disrupted’ due to a ‘general power outage in the city’.
In a post on X, Metrovalencia added: ‘The extent and duration of the outage are unknown.’
The Spanish government has gathered for an emergency session and is monitoring the situation as it develops, according to Spanish media.
It is rare to have such a widespread outage there. Spanish generator Red Eléctrica said it affected the Iberian peninsula and the incident is being assessed.
The countries have a combined population of over 50 million people. It was not immediately clear how many were affected.
France’s power grid operator said the extent of the outage there was limited and that power had been restored.
‘In France, homes were without power for several minutes in the Basque Country. All power has since been restored,’ it said, referring to the region in France’s extreme southwestern corner on the border with Spain.
RTE said that the outage was not caused by a fire in the south of France, contrary to some reports.
The operator said there was ‘no impact on the supply-demand balance’ in France.
According to RTE, the Iberian grid was automatically disconnected from the European grid from 12:38 pm to 1:30 pm (1038 GMT to 1130 GMT).
Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE said a major power outage hit several regions of the country just after midday local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain’s parliament in Madrid and subway stations across the country in the dark.
A graph on Spain’s electricity network website showing demand across the country indicated a steep drop around 12:15 p.m. from 27,500MW to near 15,000MW.
A couple of hours later, Spain’s electricity network operator said it was recovering power in the north and south of the peninsula, which would help to progressively restore the electricity supply nationwide.
In Portugal, a country of some 10.6 million people, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country.
Portugal’s government said the incident appeared to stem from problems outside the country, an official told national news agency Lusa.
‘It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It’s still being ascertained,’ Cabinet Minister Leitão Amaro was quoted as saying.
Portuguese distributor E-Redes said the outage was due to ‘a problem with the European electricity system,’ according to Portuguese newspaper Expresso.
The company said it was compelled to cut power in specific areas to stabilize the network, according to Expresso.
Several Lisbon subway cars were evacuated, reports said. Also in Portugal, courts stopped work and ATMs and electronic payment systems were affected. Traffic lights in Lisbon stopped working.
It was not possible to make calls on mobile phone networks, though some apps were working.