Johannesburg – After several hours of power outages, Spain has declared a state of emergency.
The BBC reports that the blackout led to considerable traffic disruption across Portugal and Spain.
Restaurants and bars closed early in Madrid.
Euronews said the outage halted subway trains and railways, cut phone service and Internet connections, and shut down ATMs and traffic lights In Spain, Portugal, and parts of France.
The electricity failures on Monday, (28 April 2025), also affected Portugal, with reports suggesting a “technical issue” with an energy connection between France and Spain was to blame.
However, by midnight, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said power had been restored in at least half the country.
Sanchez said authorities were still trying to find out what caused the power outages.
In Portugal, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro downplayed suggestions of a cyber attack, saying there were no indications of that.
REN, Portugal’s power firm, told local media it could take a week to restore the country’s power network.
The power failures affected millions of people in Europe.
Euronews quoted Teresa Ribera, European Commission executive vice president tasked with promoting clean energy, called the incident as saying: “one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times”.
