Spain and Portugal are currently experiencing a power blackout of rare proportions, with a considerable impact on the activities of the population, businesses, and public services.
The incident, which broke out around 12:30 p.m. this Monday, is causing disruptions throughout both countries. Part of the Basque Country was also briefly affected, but the situation seems to have returned to normal in France. Our Iberian neighbors, unfortunately, cannot say the same.
Transport on the front line
Transport, in particular, has been hit hard by this outage. Images shared by the public show particularly chaotic scenes on the road, where traffic lights have suddenly decided to take a break. Images are emerging on social media of numerous intersections completely blocked by hordes of drivers caught unawares. Authorities have even urged road users to only use their private vehicles when strictly necessary, to allow emergency services to clear a path to possible intervention sites.
The Spanish national railway company, for its part, also announced that all trains had been stopped in the early afternoon. The same is true for metros in major cities, which are all paralyzed while waiting for the power to return.
Airports, which are equipped with emergency generators to limit the impact of these situations, appear to be the only major transport hubs operating. There is therefore no need to worry about the safety of passengers who boarded trains during the day, but substantial delays are to be expected. The Portuguese airline TAP, for its part, is asking its passengers to "not go to airports" for the time being and to wait for further information.
Some witnesses are also concerned about the fate of people who were unfortunate enough to be in elevators when the power went out, and remain trapped until emergency services arrive.
Telecommunications under pressure
Hospitals are also equipped with generators that should allow them to continue their essential activities while waiting for the power to return. But the same cannot be said for telecommunications, which appear to have been affected as severely as transport. Some of Spain's major operators, such as Vodafone and Movistar, as well as messaging services such as WhatsApp, have been subject to a very large number of outage reports in recent hours. This points to a major failure of cellular networks and web infrastructure, at least in some regions.
No imminent end to the crisis
For the time being, the cause of this spectacular blackout does not yet appear to have been identified. Some Spanish media outlets, cited by Libération, mention, for example, a high-voltage line that was damaged on the French side. In Portugal, some sources also mention the possibility of a cyberattack, without mentioning the perpetrator or motive. The governments of both countries, however, are calling on the public to avoid counterproductive speculation and to wait for the authorities to rigorously analyze the situation.
All locals are naturally wondering when the situation will return to normal. Unfortunately, the crisis seems set to last for some time. The Portuguese authorities refuse to make any predictions, while their Spanish counterparts recently mentioned a possible resolution within "six to ten hours."
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