OAN Staff Abril Elfi
10:59 AM – Sunday, April 27, 2025
A massive power outage has hit Spain and Portugal knocking out traffic lights, halting subway systems, and plunging airports into chaos.
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According to a graph on Spain’s electricity network website, power demand across the country indicated a steep drop at around 12:15 p.m. local time on Monday.
Red Electrica, Spain’s electricity provider, stated that Electricity supplies could take anywhere between six to 10 hours to restore.
“The experience of other similar events that have taken place in other countries indicate to us that this process, the total reestablishment of the electrical supply, will take several hours, we could be talking about six to 10 hours, if everything goes well, until we reestablish supply to every last customer,” Eduardo Prieto, director of services for system operation at Spain’s Red Eléctrica said.
In Madrid, traffic piled up on the roads after the lights went out.
“I was driving and suddenly there were no traffic lights … It was a bit of a jungle,” Luis Ibáñez Jiménez told CNN from Madrid, Spain.
“I saw a massive bus coming, and I had to accelerate a lot to go past it,” he said.
Madrid’s mayor, José Luis Martinez Almeida, spoke on state television, urging people to limit their movements and only call emergency services in extreme cases. He also urged people to keep their distance from the roads in order to allow emergency workers to pass.
Madrid Metro said in a statement that all services had been disrupted due to a “lack of electric supply.”
Local media stated that portions of the metro had been evacuated.
Meanwhile, Madrid’s Barajas Airport, the capital’s main international airport, is reportedly experiencing a blackout, with flight tracker services reporting cancellations and delays.
The Emergency Information Office in Madrid also stated that they have carried out 174 “elevator interventions” across the city.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged residents to use phones “responsibly,” meaning making calls only when necessary and to keep them brief to ease strain on the system.
“The government is working, and will continue to work, to learn the cause of this power outage. Right now, the priority is to work to restore normality as soon as possible,” he said.
Portuguese national electricity grid Rede Electrica Nacional (REN) confirmed that the outage hit the entire Iberian peninsula at around 11:33 a.m. local time.
“All plans to restore the energy supply in stages are being activated, in coordination with European energy producers and operators,” the grid said, adding that the “possible causes of this incident are being assessed”
“Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high-voltage lines, a phenomenon known as induced atmospheric vibration,” REN, Portugal’s grid operator, was quoted as saying. “These oscillations caused synchronization failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”
Portugal’s police force also warned that traffic lights and street lighting are at risk of failing as power is cut.
“Reduce your speed and pay extra attention,” they said, instructing people to avoid unnecessary journeys. “Prioritize safe driving: your calmness saves lives,” their statement added.
A local Lisbon resident told reporters that traffic in Lisbon is “overall chaotic.”
Portugal Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the government did not yet know what caused the power outage, but that it “did not originate in Portugal” and “everything indicates” the problem originated in Spain.
“We have our intelligence services also trying to get to the bottom of what may have been at the root of the incident.”
When asked if it could have been a cyberattack, the prime minister said “nothing is off the table,” but said there was “no indication pointing in that direction.”
Some parts of France’s Basque Country were also briefly impacted by a “small power cut,” a spokesperson for France’s electricity transmission operator RTE told CNN .
“It lasted only a couple of minutes and was restored very quickly,” said Emilie Grandidier.
“We are now focusing our efforts on helping Spain restore its power,” she added.
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