Power outage cripples Spain and Portugal

Summary

Prieto refused to speculate as to what had caused the power surge and declined to say if a cyberattack could have contributed to the blackout. While the flow of electricity has been reestablished in some parts of Spain, he added that it would take between six and 10 hours to have service fully restored throughout the rest of the country. Spain and Portugal have a highly integrated energy grid that operates as an energy island and is linked to the rest of Europe through a small number of cross-border interconnections with France. The European Commission has for years called for greater integration of the countries’ energy systems, but while Madrid, Lisbon and Paris have repeatedly signaled their will to move forward with that plan, advances have been slow to come. Portugal’s E-Redes operator said the blackout was due to a "problem in the European power grid” and that data collected following the blackout suggested a voltage imbalance was responsible for the collapse. Portuguese Presidency Minister António Leitão Amaro told news agency Lusa that the imbalance appeared to be linked to “a problem in Spain’s transportation network, the exact details of which have yet to be identified.” Spain’s opposition to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have led the country to become a major target for cyberattacks. The Joint Cyberspace Command, which reports to the Defense Staff and oversees cybersecurity, and the National Cryptologic Center, are both looking into blackout.