Spain and Portugal hit by huge power outage

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Spain and parts of Portugal and France were cut off on a large force on Monday, which were infected with paralysis and mobile communications, with the authorities warning against continuing in the evening.

Local media said that the authorities were studying whether the cybersecurity had caused the power outage, which tilt the railway system, delayed flights and made traffic lights dark.

Data from the Spanish electricity player showed that more than 10 GB of demand was cut when it was hit in the afternoon local time, indicating that it was one of the largest in the last European history.

The operator, Red Eléctrica, said that he has activated plans to restore the offer in cooperation with companies in this sector. In a message about X, he said she was looking for the cause of the accident.

He then said that she was restoring the effort in the north, south and west of the peninsula, which she said was the key to the restoration of energy supplies gradually. But he warned that restoring full power will take between six and 10 hours.

By mid in the afternoon, all the country’s nuclear power plants remained inactive, according to Monteteel, the energy data specialist, as they sought to respond to the turmoil.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez held a crisis meeting with senior government officials, as local media reported that the Spanish National Institute for Cyber ​​Security was investigating whether the interruption was due to the cybersecurity.

The interruption affected millions of people throughout Spain in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, ​​while the Portuguese media reported that the network operator in the country said that the reduction had reached electricity supplies across the Iberian Peninsula as a whole.

A chief traffic in Spain called on people not to drive their cars, because traffic lights were unexpected due to the reduction. Renv, the country’s main train operator, said that all services had been suspended.

In Madrid, people poured into the streets, where the metro stations were evacuated, stores, restaurants and offices were closed. The mobile phone coverage was also hit at the beginning. Local media said that some hospitals – but not all – were working normally with the help of backup generators.

More than 300 flights were delayed at Madrid airport from mid -afternoon, including nearly half of the scheduled departure, while at Lisbon Airport, 159 flights were delayed and 92 flights were canceled.

ANA, which runs Madrid airport and 45 others across Spain, said it depends on the reserve energy supply, adding that the delay is dependent on whether the teams and passengers can access airports.

Spain gets 43 percent of electricity from wind and solar energy, but the capacity of the network and storage did not keep pace with the country’s rapid development of renewable energy.

The French network operator RTE said that parts of France were briefly affected by interruption, but this force was quickly restored.

He added that the power network in the Iberian Peninsula was separated automatically from the main European continental network at 12.38 pm, but it was reconnected an hour later.

RTE said she did not know the origin of the power outage, but she was trying to support the Iberian Peninsula in restoring power. It believes that the power outages arose on the Iberian Peninsula, not in France.

Parts of the Spanish National Network fell on Monday. The company describes itself as “the backbone of the electricity system.”

The European Commission said it was in contact with Spain, Portugal and Europe “to understand the basic issue and the impact of the situation.”

Additional reports by Philip Georgiadis and Andy Haddar