Latest news with #RedesEnergeticasNacionais
Bloomberg
18-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Portugal Eases Limits on Power Imports From Spain After Blackout
Portugal will continue to ease limits on the electricity interconnection capacity for imports from Spain after trading between the two countries was halted last month due to a blackout. The cap on import capacity from Spain will increase to 1,500 megawatts between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. on May 19-26, according to the website of Portuguese energy grid operator REN-Redes Energeticas Nacionais SA. There will no longer be restrictions at other times. Portugal has also been exporting electricity to Spain.
News18
30-04-2025
- News18
How This Indian Man Turned Portugal Blackout Into A Memorable Night For Family
Last Updated: Amid Portugal's blackout, an Indian man living with his Malaysian wife and children made the moment special. A massive blackout hit Spain and Portugal, leaving people stranded in trains, trapped in elevators and without phone or internet services. Flights were grounded and hospitals postponed procedures. Amid the chaos, an Indian man living with his Malaysian wife and children found a unique way to make the moment special. His first thought was that his kids wouldn't have internet or phone access. He made tuna sandwiches, played board games using candlelight and spending quality time together without any devices. As there were no phones to distract them, the family decided to take 'a walk in the pitch black road, stargazed and caught fireflies." On Instagram, the man wrote, 'Portugal without electricity sent us back to the cave ages, which to be honest, I didn't mind. For a brief moment when the whole region was on somewhat panic mode, my first thought was: my kids are not going to have internet tonight." 'Portugal without power for 12 hours. No internet, no phone network, no contact with the outside world. Our house runs on electricity, so no cooking either. We made tuna sandwiches and played bananagram next to candles and leftover Christmas lights. For the first time in a while, I didn't have to ask anyone to turn off their devices. It was liberating. Then we took a walk in the pitch black road, star gazed and caught fireflies. I might have enjoyed it a little more than I expected," he added. According to a report on Al Jazeera, Portugal's electricity provider, Redes Energeticas Nacionais (REN) said, 'Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as 'induced atmospheric vibration'." Dismissing REN's speculations, Spain's national weather department, Aemet, explained that on April 28, there were no strange weather events or sudden changes in temperature recorded at any of their weather stations. First Published:
India Today
30-04-2025
- India Today
Indian man, his Malaysian wife share how they navigated 12-hour blackout in Portugal
An Indian man living in Portugal with his Malaysian wife shared how his family managed a 12-hour power cut after a massive blackout plunged parts of Spain, Portugal, and southern France into power outage hit millions across the Iberian Peninsula on Monday, bringing life to a standstill in several regions. Flights were grounded, hospitals halted non-urgent procedures, and public transport collapsed in many cities. But amid the chaos, a family in Portugal decided to find calm in the man posted about his experience in a post on Instagram. "Portugal without electricity sent us back to the cave ages, which, to be honest, I didn't mind," he said. "For a brief moment, when the whole region was in somewhat panic mode, my first thought was: 'My kids are not going to have internet tonight'. How did you guys do?" The family shared a slideshow that included photos and snippets from their blackout diary. One of the slides read, "Portugal without power for 12 hours. No internet, no phone network, no contact with the outside world. Our house runs on electricity, so no cooking either." Despite the initial discomfort, the family said that the mood shifted soon after. "After the shock were off, it all started to feel liberating," the post read. While they made do without connectivity or cooked meals, they described it as a rare pause from post reads, "We made tuna sandwiches and played bananagram next to candles and leftover Christmas lights. For the first time in a while, I didn't have to ask anyone to turn off their devices. It was liberating.""Then we took a walk in the pitch black road, star gazed and caught fireflies. I might have enjoyed it a little more than I expected," the last slide in the post a look at the post here: View this post on Instagram A post shared by @portuguese_chindiansPortugal's main electricity supplier, Redes Energeticas Nacionais (REN), said the blackout was caused by a rare atmospheric phenomenon. According to them, extreme temperature changes in Spain triggered "induced atmospheric vibration" in high-voltage Spain's meteorological agency, Aemet, pushed back. The department said that it hadn't recorded any unusual temperature shifts or weather anomalies on April 28. The power slowly returned by Monday evening.
Hindustan Times
30-04-2025
- Climate
- Hindustan Times
How an Indian man and his Malaysian wife braved a 12-hour blackout in Portugal: ‘No internet, network, cooking'
A massive blackout plunged large parts of Spain, Portugal, and even southern France into darkness on Monday, leaving millions without electricity. An Indian man living in Portugal with his Malaysian wife and kids has documented how they survived the 12-hour blackout. 'Portugal without electricity sent us back to the cave ages, which to be honest, I didn't mind. For a brief moment when the whole region was on somewhat panic mode, my first thought was: 'My kids are not going to have internet tonight'. How did you guys do?' reads the caption of a post shared on Instagram by the family. They also posted several slides, along with photos, to give a glimpse of how they managed during the outage. A text insert on the first slide reads, 'Portugal without power for 12 hours. No internet, no phone network, no contact with the outside world. Our house runs on electricity so no cooking either.' The family documented that after the initial shock, things started settling, and then the whole situation became 'liberating'. A post shared by @portuguese_chindians 'Sounds like y'all are surviving,' an individual wrote. Another joined, 'Love the sound of it!' A third posted, 'I didn't enjoy it.' Al Jazeera reported that Redes Energeticas Nacionais (REN), Portugal's electricity provider, cited a 'rare atmospheric phenomenon' as the reason behind the blackout. 'Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as 'induced atmospheric vibration',' REN said. However, Spain's national meteorological office, Aemet, disagreed with REN's statement. The department said, 'During the day of 28 April, no unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena were detected, and nor were there sudden variations in the temperature in our network of meteorological stations.'
Al Jazeera
29-04-2025
- Climate
- Al Jazeera
What we know about power outage in Spain, Portugal
Spain and Portugal have regained access to electricity after one of Europe's worst blackouts paralysed transport systems, disrupted mobile communications and postponed medical procedures. For almost a day from Monday to early on Tuesday, tens of millions of people were plunged into darkness. In major cities like Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon, people were trapped in lifts, stuck on trains and unable to access the internet. Meanwhile, queues snaked outside the few supermarkets running on backup generators as people stocked up on dried goods, water and battery-powered flashlights. The Spanish and Portuguese governments quickly convened emergency meetings after the outage, which hit Spain and Portugal about 12:30 (10:30 GMT) on Monday and also briefly affected southern France. Almost no one in the Iberian Peninsula, which has a population of almost 60 million people, escaped the blackout. Madrid was forced to declare a state of emergency. Although power has been largely restored, transport remains in dire straits, with trains and flights reporting delays. No firm cause for the shutdown has yet emerged. With the power back on, attention is turning to what caused such a widespread failure of the region's networks. Portugal's electricity provider, Redes Energeticas Nacionais (REN), said a 'rare atmospheric phenomenon' had caused a severe imbalance in temperatures that led to the widespread shutdowns. REN said: 'Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as 'induced atmospheric vibration'.' The Portuguese prime minister, Luis Montenegro, also said the issue originated in Spain. However, in a statement on Tuesday, Spain's national meteorological office, Aemet, appeared to rule out the weather as a culprit. 'During the day of 28 April, no unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena were detected, and nor were there sudden variations in the temperature in our network of meteorological stations,' Aemet said. The Spanish government said the cause of the power cut is still unknown and warned against speculation. 'My gut feeling is that multiple factors were behind the blackout,' Kang Li, smart energy systems chairman at the University of Leeds, told Al Jazeera. 'It usually takes several months for forensic grid data to be properly analysed,' he added, 'though an interim report could be done in several weeks.' Bloomberg News reported that Spain has seen a record number of hours with negative power prices in recent months as more wind and solar energy supplies the grid. Until now, however, oversupply hadn't led to blackouts. In 2024, renewable energy sources accounted for 56 percent of all electricity used in Spain, a record high. By 2030, that proportion is expected to reach 81 percent. According to Li, 'it's harder to manage energy output when infrastructure is changing so quickly. A higher penetration of renewables with existing systems creates more fluctuation in the operating system.' For his part, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, 'We have never had a complete collapse of the system,' explaining how Spain's power grid lost 15 gigawatts, the equivalent of 60 percent of its national demand, in just five seconds. While there's no evidence yet of a cyberattack, Sanchez said he isn't ruling anything out. He warned against speculation but said 'no cause can be discredited at this point'. Although investigations into the cause of the outage are ongoing, Portugal's National Cybersecurity Centre threw cold water on the idea of foul play, saying there was no sign that the outage resulted from a cyberattack. Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro also said there was 'no indication' of a cyberattack. Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Teresa Ribera, an executive vice president of the European Commission, also ruled out sabotage. Nonetheless, the outage 'is one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times', she said. For now, the Spanish government said it is waiting for more information on the cause of the blackout. State officials said they hope in the coming days to know what the cause was. Spain and Portugal were the worst affected, but outages occurred elsewhere too: By mid-afternoon on Monday, Spain's electricity operator, Red Electrica (REE), said it had started to recover voltage in the north, south and west of the country. The recovery process was carried out gradually to avoid overloading the grid as generators linked up. Power also returned to Portugal bit by bit. By Monday night, REN said 85 of its 89 power substations were back online. By Tuesday morning, power had almost fully returned to Spain and Portugal. At 6:30am (04:30 GMT) more than 99 percent of energy demand in Spain had been restored, REE said. Elsewhere, power was restored overnight to 6.2 million of Portugal's 6.5 million households. At the city level, Madrid's metro system said service was restored on all but one line by 8am (06:00 GMT), meaning that 80 percent of trains were operating during Tuesday morning's rush hour. While outages are not unheard of in Europe, the scale of Iberia's power failure was one of the largest in recent history. In 2019, England and Wales suffered regional blackouts amid lightning strikes at a gas-fired power plant in Bedfordshire and an offshore wind farm off the east coast of England. A 2006 German power overload caused outages as far away as Portugal and Morocco. In 2003, a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused an outage across Italy for about 12 hours. 'Interconnection between countries has positive benefits as it can improve efficiency and reduce costs. … It's always sunny or raining somewhere in Europe,' Li said. 'But', he added 'interconnected systems mean that local faults in one location can have domino effects elsewhere. Transmission lines can become overloaded.' Li also pointed out that climate change and rising temperatures pose 'increasing risks' for Spain-and-Portugal-style blackouts. 'Heat, excessive rain and wildfires all increase the risk of transmission failures. We can address this by investing more in clean energy generation to increase energy system flexibility.'
