What to Know About Power Outage That Hit Spain and Portugal
Customers are faced with powerless food stands during a nationwide power outage on April 28, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. Credit - Sandra Montanez—Getty Images
A countrywide power outage impacted Spain—as well as swaths of Portugal and smaller portions of France—Monday afternoon, affecting essential services and wreaking chaos across the Iberian Peninsula.
The cause of the outage is currently being investigated by Spanish and Portuguese officials and ministers.
'We have activated the procedures planned for restoring power supply; in this phase of the work, the objective is to provide power to the generating units so they can start up and propagate power to the grid and other units,' electricity company Red Eléctrica said in Spanish in a press release on Monday.
But in the interim, residents are experiencing traffic delays as traffic lights stopped functioning, the shutdown of nearby grocery stores, and other disruptions.
Spanish officials have asked residents to steer clear of the roads and only request emergency services in serious cases. Similarly, Portuguese police asked locals to only travel if necessary, warning that street and traffic lights could collapse.
'Something like this has never happened before,' Red Eléctrica told El Pais. Eduardo Pietra, director of operations for the electricity grid added that there was 'no record of the cause of the incident' and that the company could not 'speculate about its origin.'
Red Eléctrica shared that there was a drop in power at about 12:30 p.m. local time. While some power began to be restored by 1:00 p.m. local time, electricity will only return gradually. The company estimates that power will return throughout Spain between 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Electricity is now available in some areas of Catalonia, Aragon, the Basque Country, Galicia, Asturias, Navarre, Castile and León, Extremadura, and Andalusia, Red Eléctrica told TIME.
While hospitals will continue operating thanks to generators, other sectors remain impacted. Transportation has been temporarily paused across airports and train stations. In a post on X, Spanish train company Renfe said that all trains are detained and will have no departures, citing the fact that the national electricity grid was cut. Portuguese airline TAP Air asked its customers to not go to the airport as flights remain suspended. Air Europa asked patrons to remain patient due to expected delays. 'Flexible date changes are being made to assist all passengers,' the airline said in a post on X. Spain's flagship airline Iberia said that their systems were fully operational despite the outage, but were giving passengers the option to reschedule their trips given the problems reported at numerous airports.
Renfe did not respond to TIME's request for comment.
The outage also prompted the suspension of the international tennis tournament Madrid Open.
Contact us at letters@time.com.
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