Site visitors lights went darkish at busy intersections. Trains stopped in the center of a workday. And lengthy strains shaped at A.T.M.s and grocery shops, the place bank card readers stopped working.
Widespread energy outages upended life for thousands and thousands throughout Spain and Portugal (and briefly, components of France) on Monday, resulting in questions on what induced the disruptions and when the lights would return.
Right here’s what we all know.
The trigger stays below investigation.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, mentioned that officers had been nonetheless investigating the causes of the outage. .
Portugal’s nationwide power provider, E-Redes, cited an unspecified “drawback in the European electrical energy grid.”
António Leitão Amaro, a senior official in the Portuguese authorities, mentioned there was no proof of a cyberattack. REN, a Portuguese electrical energy and gasoline provider, denied stories that an unspecified “atmospheric phenomenon” was in charge.
Hospitals, banks and journey had been disrupted in Spain and Portugal.
There have been widespread issues connecting to the web and to cellphone networks throughout Spain and Portugal, and Mr. Sánchez urged individuals to make solely temporary calls on their cellphones.
Hospitals in Spain had been pressured to run on mills. Portuguese banks and faculties closed. Spain’s nationwide rail firm mentioned that trains had stopped working in any respect stations. Subways in a number of cities, together with Valencia and Madrid, had been halted. The Madrid Open tennis event was suspended. And other people crammed into shops to purchase meals and different necessities as clerks used pen and paper to document cash-only transactions.
Diana Alfia, an worker at a hostel in Lisbon, mentioned that some individuals had gone to the seaside since there was not a lot else to do, and some vacationers walked miles from the airport into the metropolis as a result of Uber and public transportation weren’t accessible.
“I really feel like all people remains to be calm, as a result of lots of people are hoping for it to turn into higher inside the subsequent hours,” she mentioned. “However we don’t know in the finish.”
How lengthy will it take to revive energy?
The authorities mentioned they had been working to revive energy, which had gone out round 11:30 a.m. in Lisbon and 12:30 p.m. in Madrid.
Mr. Sánchez didn’t provide an actual timeline to revive energy throughout a public deal with on Monday night, however mentioned that officers had been working to convey it again “quickly.”
Spain’s nationwide energy firm, Purple Eléctrica, mentioned on X that energy had returned to many components of the nation, together with in Catalonia, Aragon, the Basque Nation and Andalusia.
Seville and Málaga in southern Spain started to revive energy, in response to the Spanish newspaper El País. Lights in components of Barcelona and the Basque Nation had been additionally beginning to flip again on.
The outage briefly affected households in France’s Basque area, however RTE, the French electrical grid operator, mentioned that “all energy has since been restored.”
Power started to return to components of Portugal, together with the metropolis of Porto, by Monday night, in response to REN, the Portuguese electrical energy and gasoline provider.
The corporate mentioned in a press release on Monday that restoring electrical energy in Portugal could also be a gradual course of. Spain can depend on energy methods in each France and Morocco to assist restore energy, whereas Portugal should use its personal manufacturing.
Power went out amid excessive temperatures.
In accordance with Spain’s meteorological company, AEMET, temperatures throughout the nation had been between 60 and 70 levels Fahrenheit round the time of the energy outages. By the finish of the day, highs had climbed to between 82 and 87 levels.
This was above common: In April, temperatures in Spain common round 64 levels in central and northern areas and about 70 levels in the south.
When requested whether or not the outages had been related to the warmth, Bruno Silva, a spokesman for REN, was skeptical. “No, I hope not,” he mentioned.
Different European outages have halted each day life.
Greater than 50 million individuals in Italy had been left in the darkish for nearly a full day in 2003 after a line between Switzerland and Italy was overloaded. It was thought-about the worst day of blackouts in the nation since World Struggle II.
In 2006, 10 million individuals in Germany had been briefly with out energy after the northwestern a part of the nation’s energy grid turned overloaded.
And final yr, a lot of the Balkans was with out energy for a number of hours throughout a warmth wave in which temperatures soared to 40 levels Celsius, or over 100 levels Fahrenheit.
The facility grids in Europe are interconnected, and an overload or problem in one space can unfold to a different nation.
Nazaneen Ghaffar contributed reporting.
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