European Council: No cyberattack in Spain-Portugal blackout
Shafaq News/ On Monday, European Council President António Costa ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack behind the massive blackout that disrupted power across Spain and Portugal.
“Grid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply,” Costa posted on X.
I am in touch with @sanchezcastejon and @LMontenegro_PT about the widespread power outages in Spain and Portugal today.Grid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply.At this point, there are no indications of any…
— António Costa (@eucopresident) April 28, 2025
The outage, which began around 12:30 p.m. local time, crippled transport networks, disrupted mobile services and banking operations, and halted metro systems. Major cities, including Madrid and Lisbon, reported suspended metro lines, disabled traffic lights, airport delays, and interruptions to events such as the Madrid Open tennis tournament.
In response, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez convened an emergency National Security Council meeting and visited Red Eléctrica’s control center. Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro also confirmed coordination efforts with Spain, projecting that supply stabilization could be achieved by the end of the day.
Partial restoration has been reported in northern and southern Spain. Portugal’s grid operator REN attributed the blackout to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” that caused “anomalous oscillations” in Spain’s high-voltage transmission lines, triggering cascading failures across Europe’s interconnected grid.
Energy experts described the simultaneous loss of more than 10 gigawatts of power as “highly unusual.” Ian Berryman, head of energy systems modeling at BloombergNEF, estimated that full stabilization could take several hours or longer.
REN also cautioned that full normalization of the grid could take up to a week, citing the technical complexity of the disruption.
