MADRID (AP) — Power was almost fully restored to Spain and Portugal on Tuesday although many questions remained about what caused one of Europe’s most severe blackouts that grounded flights, paralyzed metro systems, disrupted mobile communications and shut down ATMs across the Iberian Peninsula.
By 7 a.m., more than 99% of energy demand in Spain had been restored, the country’s electricity operator Red Eléctrica said. Portuguese grid operator REN said Tuesday morning all of the 89 power substations were back online since late last night and power had been restored to all 6.4 million customers.
By Tuesday morning, life was returning to normal: schools and offices reopened in Spain, traffic eased along the capital’s main arteries and public transport restarted after significant delays.
Spanish authorities did not provide new explanations for what caused the blackout, one of the most serious to ever take place in Europe.
In a televised address Monday night, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the power grid for the Southern European nation of 49 million people lost 15 gigawatts — equivalent to 60% of its national demand — in just five seconds.
“We have never had a complete collapse of the system,” Sánchez said. Authorities were still investigating what happened on Tuesday.
Cause remains a mystery
Such widespread electric failure has little precedent on the Iberian Peninsula or in Europe.
On Tuesday, Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET said that it had not detected any “unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena” on Monday, and no sudden temperature fluctuations were recorded at their weather stations.
Portugal’s National Cybersecurity Center on Monday threw cold water on feverish speculation about foul play, saying there was no sign that the outage resulted from a cyber attack. European Council President Antonio Costa also said there were “no indications of any cyber attack” Monday afternoon.
Teresa Ribera, an executive vice president of the European Commission, also ruled out sabotage. Nonetheless, the outage “is one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times,” she said.
Chaos at train stations, Madrid Open opening delayed
At Spain’s largest train stations, droves of travelers waited Tuesday morning to board trains, or to rebook tickets for journeys that were canceled or disrupted on Monday and return home.
At Atocha station in Madrid, hundreds of people stood near screens waiting for updates. Many had spent the night at the station, wrapped in blankets provided by the Red Cross around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning for those who had to wait overnight thanks to canceled trains. Similar scenes played out at Barcelona’s Sants station.
The Madrid Open tennis tournament being held this week was still affected by the power outage Tuesday after its cancellation the previous day. Tournament organizers delayed opening its doors.
Metro systems restored but other trains still disrupted
By 11 a.m. Tuesday, service on Madrid’s metro system was fully restored. In Barcelona, the system was operating normally but commuter trains were suspended due to “electrical instability,” the company that runs the service, Rodalies Catalunya, said on X.
In some parts of the country, commuter and mid-distance services were still suspended or running at reduced capacity.
Emergency workers in Spain said they had rescued some 35,000 passengers on Monday stranded along railways and underground, with the blackout turning sports centers, train stations and airports into makeshift overnight refuges.
On Monday, Rubén Carión was stranded on a commuter train outside Madrid, when he pried the window open and walked to the nearest transit station by foot. Then, he spent the night in the city’s Atocha station after his train back to Barcelona was canceled.
The 24-year-old said he chose to wait overnight at the station instead of a hotel so he could stay updated on when he could board a train home, describing his experience as “pure chaos.”
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Associated Press video journalist Helena Alves in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
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