Lights out for Barry tourist caught in Spanish blackout
Spain Portugal and parts of France were heavily involved which wasn't good news for Alun who was holidaying in Torrevieja Spain.
Across the Iberian Peninsula, the outage grounded flights, paralysed train systems and disrupted mobile communication.
Power first went out Monday morning on April 28.
In capitals, Madrid and Lisbon offices closed and traffic was gridlocked as traffic lights had stopped working.
In Barcelona, residents walked into stores searching for battery-powered radios and civilians directed traffic at junctions along the Gran Via avenue that cuts through the city.
Alun Williams of Barry on holidays in Torrevieja during a power outage (Image: Alun Williams) Alun described the experience: 'At around 11.30am local time we noticed the power had gone in our apartment. We tried to investigate whether it was the trip switched but it still didn't work.
'We then asked if the other apartments had power which they hadn't. We took a walk down the beach and we discovered the whole resort was out.
'We had limited connectivity but were able to find out that the whole of Spain had a power cut. The local supermarket was shut with police stationed outside.
'We did start worry what would have caused this?' The beach in Torrevieja during a power outage (Image: Alun Williams) It wasn't long before locals started speculating and panicking.
Alun explained: 'You could see people talking about possible Russian interference as we learnt Portugal also had a power cut which further fuelled our concern that it had something to do with the Russians.
'All the restaurants were closed and all, but one Supermarket had closed so we assumed it had a generator. It was packed with people panic buying and most shelves were empty.
'It was very eerie, and we anxious about what was happening.
'At around 6pm we were still without power with no end in sight and we'd lost all communication.'
Alun Williams of Barry on holidays in Torrevieja during a power outage (Image: Alun Williams) Eventually power was restored almost 23 hours later Tuesday April 29 around 11am.
The cause of the power outage hasn't been confirmed.
The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre in a statement said there was no sign the outage was due to a cyber-attack.
The Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez described the problem in the European grid as a 'strong oscillation' and added that the cause is still being determined.
The Spanish leader asked the public to refrain from speculation and said no theory about the cause of the outage had been discarded.
'We are analysing all the potential causes without discarding any hypothesis,' the prime minister said.
He went on to detail that, at 12.22pm on Monday, Spain's power grid lost 15 gigawatts, the equivalent of 60% of its national demand, in a matter of five seconds.
'We have never had a complete collapse of the system,' he added.
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