MADRID, April 28. /TASS/. A major blackout hit Spain and Portugal, leaving millions of people without electricity, impacting transport and communication lines.
TASS has compiled the key details on the situation.
The scale
Power outages are reported from the whole of Spain and Portugal.
Power supply problems were also reported from Andorra and French regions bordering Spain.
Causes of the incidents have not yet been identified.
Capacity losses in Spain and Portugal’s power grids after the large-scale blackout exceeded 10 GW, The Financial Times reported, citing the power grid operator.
Consequences
According to a TASS correspondent in Madrid, mobile internet and communication is unavailable in the city.
According to the ABC newspaper, problems are reported at Madrid Airport and metro.
Madrid’s Barajas Airport is left without power supplies. Power outages affected the operation of other airports in the region, the Euronews television channel said.
Major power cuts halted trains across Spain, Renfe, a trail transport operator, said.
Spain’s five nuclear power plants suspended electricity generation out of safety concerns.
Failure recovery
Technicians begin to restore power supplies in Spain’s northern and southern regions following the massive blackout, Red Electrica, an operator company, said.
The Portugal Resident portal reported that the country’s energy authority has begun to resume power supplies to some regions.
It said that E-Redes operator cut off power supplies in "some areas" to stabilize the grid. Power outages are still reported from Algarve in southern Portugal.
According to E-Redes, power outages stem from the "problem in the European grid that affected the national one."
Reaction from authorities
The Spanish government held an emergency meeting, Euronews reported.
Spain’s authorities promised to investigate these massive power outages to see if they were caused by a cyberattack, ABC said.
A crisis management committee was set up in Spain, Bloomber reported citing sources.
The causes of the massive blackouts have not yet been identified, with a possible cyberattack not being ruled out, the agency said.