A widespread blackout struck Spain and Portugal around midday Monday, April 28, halting trains, grounding flights, disabling ATMs, and cutting off phone services and traffic lights for millions across the Iberian Peninsula. The outage impacted major cities including Madrid, Lisbon and Barcelona.
Spain’s Interior Ministry declared a national emergency, and both countries held emergency cabinet meetings.
Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica estimated that full power restoration could take six to ten hours. Electricity returned to parts of Spain and Portugal, including Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon, by Monday evening.
Hospitals in Madrid and Catalonia operated on generators, suspending non-critical services.
Airports ran on backup power, causing delays, while courts, gas stations, and public transit systems were shut down or heavily disrupted. Citizens improvised—directing traffic, searching for radios, and queuing for generators.
The cause of the blackout remains unclear. Portugal’s Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said there was “no indication” of a cyberattack.
A REN board member suggested the disruption may have been caused by a “very large oscillation in electrical voltage” originating in Spain and spreading to Portugal. Eduardo Prieto of Red Eléctrica called the event “exceptional and extraordinary.”
European Commission vice president Teresa Ribera said the outage was “one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times” but confirmed there were no signs of a cyberattack.
