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Wednesday April 30, 2025
(LONDON) -- Millions of people in Spain, Portugal and parts of southern France lost power on Monday following a "severe disruption" in the European electrical system, the Spanish prime minister said.
The cause of the disruption is still unknown, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in remarks Monday evening local time.
The Spanish government said it called an emergency crisis meeting to fix the situation as soon as possible.
The interior minister of Spain declared a national emergency in multiple regions, including the communities of Madrid and Andalucía, due to the power outage.
Red Eléctrica, the corporation that operates the national electricity grid in Spain, said it is working on restoring power to mainland Spain and Portugal.
Nearly half of the substations have power again, Red Eléctrica said in an update Monday night local time.
"Supply is being progressively restored in all electrical areas of the territory, with 45% of the substation parks of the transmission network already energized," the company said in an update.
Red Eléctrica previously said Monday afternoon that electricity should be fully restored within six to 10 hours.
The company said it was also working to provide power from generators, which is part of the procedure for restoring power supply.
Sanchez said during a press conference Monday evening that authorities are working to determine the origins of the power outage.
"We are working on knowing the origins and the reason of this incident," Sanchez said in Spanish. "We are using all of our resources to solve the issue."
Authorities, meanwhile, asked people to stay at home and to avoid circulating, while emergency generators were also being put in place.
"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," Red Eléctrica wrote in a post to X. "The causes are being analyzed and all resources are being dedicated to solving it."
Airports in the country were not closed, but they are seeing massive delays. Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon was seeing the most canceled and delayed flights of any airport in the world, according to FlightAware, with Barcelona-El Prat Airport and Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport not far behind.
The power outages impacted the Madrid Open, with tennis matches being canceled Monday "in order to guarantee the safety of the players, fans and personnel," the tournament said in a statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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