Mobile Network Hit, Total Chaos At Grocery Stores: What Caused A Total Blackout In Spain

Drivers in Spain were urged not to use their cars unless necessary, and phones should be used "responsibly" as telecommunications were at a "critical moment".

The outage left government buildings, including Spain’s Parliament, subway systems, airports and grocery stores without power.

Source : X@shellenberger

Spain and parts of Portugal witnessed a total blackout on Monday causing widespread disruptions and travel chaos. The outage left government buildings, including Spain’s Parliament, subway systems, airports and grocery stores without power. The cities that got affected include Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao and Lisbon.  

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared a state of emergency, while Portuguese PM Luís Montenegro said there was "no indication" that the power cut was caused by a cyber attack.

Drivers in Spain were urged not to use their cars unless necessary, and phones should be used "responsibly" as telecommunications were at a "critical moment".

What All Got Affected Due To Power Outage

Transport, including trains, metros and airports

Traffic lights are also down

Internet and mobile coverage

Lighting in homes, businesses and other buildings

ATMs and card payments

Lifts in buildings were stuck

Electric car chargers and fuel pumps were also down

Air conditioning units

A significant number of water pumps, meaning some homes had no access to drinking water 

What Caused Power Outage In Spain?

Portuguese grid operator said a 'rare atmospheric phenomenon' could be behind outage and the disruption could last a week. It said due to extreme temperature variations in Spain, there were "anomalous oscillations" in very high-voltage lines.

This is known as "induced atmospheric variation", which in turn led to oscillations which caused synchronisation failures between systems, it added.

That led to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network, the operator said, adding that it could take up to a week for the network to fully normalise again. 

Spain's PM Sanchez, however, said there was still no definitive information regarding the cause of the widespread power blackout affecting much of the Iberian Peninsula. Half of Spain's power was restored by the night.