Energy collapse in the Pyrenees: Spain and Portugal paralysed by massive blackout

Millions of people in Spain and Portugal faced a sudden blackout on Monday. The blackout affected the whole of Portugal and most of Spain, including Madrid and Lisbon. The international airports of Barjas (Madrid) and Humberto Delgado (Lisbon) had to stop working, and in the capital's metro, passengers were stranded in tunnels.

The power outage exacerbated problems with mobile networks, with people in the two countries reporting a lack of connectivity. Trains were halted and operations were cancelled in some hospitals, notably La Paz in Madrid and medical facilities in Portugal. In one hospital in Setubal, backup generators could only provide power for 8-12 hours, with no water and no internet.

Residents were advised to only call emergency services in the event of a real threat to avoid overloading lines.

The Spanish government has convened an emergency meeting in Moncloa. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez arrived in person at the Red Eléctrica grid control centre to coordinate action.

The European Commission also said it was in touch with the Spanish and Portuguese authorities and the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) to find out the causes of the incident. The official statement noted that protocols are in place to restore the power grid.

One of the possible causes of the failure is said to be a fire in south-western France, on Mount Alaric, which damaged a power line between Perpignan and Narbonne. This accident could have caused cascading problems in the European grid and triggered a blackout on the Iberian Peninsula.

Problems were recorded not only in Spain and Portugal, but also in Andorra, southern France and even partially in Belgium. However, power supply was restored relatively quickly in France.

According to Red Eléctrica, by mid-afternoon the gradual process of restoring power supply in the northern and southern regions of Spain had begun. However, experts warn that full restoration will take time due to the complexity of coordinating the processes.

The recorded drop in electricity consumption in Spain of 50 per cent at the time of the outage at 12:30pm this afternoon shows the scale of the disaster.