Spanish power grid recovers after massive outage, trains still disrupted

Published 29/04/2025, 08:48
© Reuters.

Investing.com -- Red Electrica (BME:REDE), Spain’s electricity grid operator, announced early Tuesday that it was able to meet almost all of the country’s electricity demand, following a nationwide blackout on Monday. The company stated that all of Spain’s substations were functioning by Tuesday morning, indicating a gradual recovery from the widespread power outage.

In a social media post, Red Electrica stated, "We keep on working from the center of electric control to secure total normalization of the system." Despite the restoration of power, most trains across the country remained non-operational.

The Madrid underground metro network resumed operations at 8 am (0600 GMT) with 80% of trains running. However, Adif, the railway infrastructure operator, reported that most trains nationwide were still not in service.

On Monday morning, a significant power outage impacted the majority of the Iberian Peninsula, causing disruptions in both Spain and Portugal. The outage grounded planes, halted public transport, and forced hospitals to limit routine procedures. Power supply started to return gradually from late Monday afternoon and early evening, though some operations were still unable to resume on Tuesday morning.

The reason behind Monday’s power outage remains unknown. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reported that the country experienced a loss of 15GW of electricity generation in five seconds, equating to 60% of national demand.

This abrupt loss caused a disconnection of the Spanish and French power grids, leading to a general collapse of the Spanish system, as explained by Eduardo Prieto, Red Electrica’s chief of operations.

Prieto’s briefing on Monday evening also mentioned that some areas in France experienced brief power outages. Meanwhile, Portugal’s grid officials indicated that the problem originated in Spain.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

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