An unprecedented and unprecedented power cut on Monday reached large parts of Spain, as well as Portugal. The blackout stopped the metro and rail trains, cut the telephone service and closed the traffic lights and ATMs for the millions of people living in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe.
The Spanish Energy Distributor Red Electrica said that restoring power to the country could take up to 10 hours. As the night fell, only 35% of Spain’s energy capacity had been restored, according to the usefulness. The capital of Portugal, Lisbon, remained without energy, since electricity returned to about 750,000 clients in the country, according to the REN operator, which said the situation was expected to be normalized “shortly.”
The Portuguese Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, expected power to be restored at the end of the day.
The power cut reaches the capitals of Spain and Portugal
The interruption also hit the Spanish capital, Madrid. The closed offices and traffic growled when traffic lights stopped working. It was not possible to make calls on some mobile phone networks, he thought that some applications were working. In Barcelona, residents entered stores in search of radios with batteries and civilians directed to traffic in junctions along the Gran Vía that crosses the city.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, said that a problem in the European network that described as a “strong oscillation” was behind the interruption, but that the cause was still being determined. The Spanish leader asked the public to abstract speculation and said that he had not ruled out any theory about the cause of the interruption.
Ren, the Portuguese network operator said that a rare atmospheric phenomenon in Spain of extreme temperature variations was behind the mass interruption, agreed to the Reuters news agency. The National Portuguese Cybersecurity Center issued a statement by saying that there were no signs that the interruption was due to a cyber attack.
Electric Red declined specular about the causes of the blackout. Eduardo Prieto, chief of electrical network operations, told reporters that he had no precedents, calling the “exceptional and extraordinary” event. In the mid -half, the voltage was progressively restored in the north, south and west of the peninsula, said the company.
Electricity was taken from Morocco and France to restore energy to the south and northern Spain, Sánchez said, thanking their governments. Spain was also increasing production from hydroelectric and combined thermal energy plants.
Sánchez Convent an extraordinary meeting of the National Security Council of Spain and visited Red Electric to follow efforts to restore network operations. Montenegro said he has spoken several times to Sánchez. The Portuguese Cabinet Convent an emergency meeting at the Residence of the Prime Minister.
Reuters/Susana Vera 
Countries have a combined population of approximately 60 million people. It was not clear immediately how many were affected. It is strange to have such a wide interruption through the Iberian Peninsula.
The Canary Islands of Spain, the Balearic Islands and the territories of Ceuta and Melilla, located in the Mediterranean in Africa, were not affected by the interruption.
The Portugal government said the interruption seemed to come from problems outside the country, an official told the National Portuguese news agency.
“It seems that it was a problem with the distribution network, equipped in Spain. It is still being determined,” said Cabinet Minister Leitão Amaro.
The Portuguese distributor E-Redes said the interruption was due to “a problem with the European Electricity System”, according to the Portuguese newspaper Expresso. The company said it was obliged to reduce energy in specific areas to stabilize the network, according to expresso.
The blackout is the second severe European energy cut in less than six weeks after a fire of March 20 Close Heathrow Airport In the United Kingdom and arrives when the authorities throughout Europe are seen by sabotage supported by Russia.
The public broadcaster of Spain, RTVE, said that a large blackout reached several regions of the country just after the local noon, leaving its writing room, the Parliament of Spain in Madrid and the subway stations throughout the country in the dark.
Some people were caught in elevators or internal garages and 286 rescue operations were carried out to release the trapped within the elevators in the Madrid region, regional authorities said.
A chart on the website of the Electric Red of Spain showing the demand throughout the country indicated a strong fall around 12:15 pm of 27,500 megawatts to almost 15,000 megawatts.
Spanish airports operated in electrical support systems and some flights were delayed, according to AENA, which executes 56 airports in Spain, including Madrid and Barcelona.
In Lisbon, the closed terminals and multitudes of tourists sat outside the sun and the shadow, waiting for news about their flights.
“We carry any plane that arrives or leaves in the 50 minutes that we have the leg waiting here,” said Dutch tourist Marc Brandsma to The Associated Press.
Training services in both countries stop. The video broadcast on Spanish Television showed people who evacuated subway stations in Madrid and empty stations with detainees in Barcelona. The Minister of Transportation of Spain, Oscar Puente, published on the social platform X that it would not be possible to restart the trains later on Monday, even if the power returned.
Javier Soriano/AFP through Getty Images 
Playing in the Open Madrid tennis tournament was suspended. Three games were being underway when power was reduced.
The Traffic Department of Spain asked citizens to avoid using their cars as much as possible due to the power cut, which has affected traffic lights and signage of the electric road.
The streets of Barcelona full of many people on the sidewalks, the grinding of darkened stores and offices and exchanging information about what happened.
“We are lucky. Some people were trapped in the subway. And there is a positive side: we are talking more between us,” said Monste Cortés. She said dinner would be sliced bread and cold cuts.
The immediate groups were which telephone companies still had at least an irregular coverage, or where Internet access could be found. Another concern was how to get home with the closed subway and packed public buses. Some took advantage of the lack of connectivity and transport to enjoy the sun on the terraces of the restaurants.
In Terrassa, an industrial city 30 miles from Barcelona, the stores that sold generators were exhausted after people align to buy them.
Parts of France were also affected by letters, according to Reuters. French grid operator RTE was working to provide energy to some parts of northern Spain.
In Portugal, a country of about 10.6 million people, the interruption reached Lisbon and the surrounding areas, as well as in the northern and southern country of the country. The Portuguese police placed more officers in service to direct traffic and deal with the greatest requests for help, including people trapped in elevators.
Hospitals and other emergency services in Spain and Portugal changed to generators. The service stations stopped working.
The National Authority of Portugal for Emergencies and Civil Protection said that the support energy systems were operating.
Several Lisbon subway cars were evacuated, according to reports. Also in Portugal, the courts stopped working and ATMs and electronic payment systems were affected.
Contributed to this report.
