Who cut off the power in Spain and Portugal?

On Monday afternoon, just after 12:30, a strong fluctuation in the Spanish electricity grid caused a complete collapse of the network, affecting Portugal and France.

According to the Portuguese network operator REN, the fault in the Spanish grid is likely related to a rare atmospheric phenomenon known as “induced atmospheric variation.”

The power cables you see outside on the streets or in the mountains vibrate (move up and down or back and forth) when the weather changes for two reasons:

• When the temperature changes, the metal in the cables expands (when it heats up) or contracts (when it cools down). If the change is sudden, the cables “shake” as the metal adjusts to the new size.
• When the air around them has different densities (e.g., a wave of warm air followed by cold air), small air currents push the cables, causing them to move as if being blown.

Around 35,000 passengers were stranded on more than 100 trains in Spain. The metro stopped, air traffic was halted, and traffic lights went out, creating chaos on the streets.

Hundreds of people had to be rescued from elevators.

Mobile networks and internet access were disrupted.

Hospitals postponed non-urgent procedures and used generators to manage critical cases, while electronic banking transactions were carried out using backup systems.

Since yesterday afternoon, the restoration of electricity supply began in the Iberian Peninsula. By this morning, power had been restored to more than 99% in both countries.

However, many areas in Spain are still in a state of emergency.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that the causes of the outage are being investigated and it is too early to know, while Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said there is “no evidence” of a cyberattack.

1. Politico
2. Guardian