It's a Blackout In Spain & Portugal

Two countries left in the dark

What caused the black out and was renewable power to blame?

As life in Spain and Portugal stutters back to normal, the big questions are not just what went wrong but how to prevent such a full-scale power failure from happening again.

Hospitals and other emergency services switched to generators, and gas stations stopped working. The outage also briefly impacted France, and there were reports of an internet disruption in Morocco.

At the Madrid Open tennis tournament, matches were suspended and thousands of fans were left in the dark as the venue lost power. Organizers said on X they were working to “restore normality as soon as possible.”

It was not until 11:15 (09:15 GMT) on Tuesday, almost 23 hours after the system collapsed that Spain's electricity grid declared it was back to normal.

Spain and Portugal switched their power back on after the worst blackout in their history, though authorities offered little explanation for what had caused it or how they would prevent it happening again.

Traffic lights were back on, train and metro services slowly returned and schools reopened. Commuters battled with delays to get back to work after an outage that had left people stranded in lifts and cut off from phone contact with their families.

The cause of the outages remains under investigation, and officials with Portuguese energy company Redes Energéticas Nacionais have denied reports that it was tied to an “atmospheric phenomenon,” according to The New York Times. Spanish President Pedro Sánchez has urged people not to speculate.