Massive power outage in Spain, Portugal blamed on solar plant breakdowns

A massive power outage wreaked havoc in Europe, with Spain and Portugal experiencing widespread disruptions to their electricity supply. The outage, which occurred on Monday, was attributed to likely breakdowns at solar plants in southwest Spain. By 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday, more than 99% of energy demand in Spain had been restored, and power had been restored to all 6.4 million customers in Portugal.

Red Eléctrica, Spain’s electricity operator, identified two incidents of power generation loss in southwest Spain, which caused instability in the power grid and led to a breakdown in the interconnection with France. The economic cost of the blackout in the Iberian Peninsula was estimated to be between $2.5 billion to more than $5 billion.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the outage as unprecedented, with emergency workers rescuing stranded passengers and evacuating metro stations. The Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended for the day, and Portugal also experienced disruptions, with subway cars being evacuated and electronic payment systems affected.

REN, Portugal’s grid operator, attributed the outage to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” caused by extreme temperature variations in Spain. However, Spain’s meteorological agency, AEMET, stated that no unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena were detected on Monday.

Red Eléctrica’s chief of operations, Eduardo Prieto, explained that the power grid instability led to a split in the Spanish and French electricity interconnection, causing failures on the Spanish side. Some parts of France also experienced brief power outages as a result.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the outage, and both countries are working to prevent similar incidents in the future. The impact of the power outage serves as a reminder of the importance of maintaining a stable and reliable electricity supply to prevent disruptions to daily life and economic activities.