Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said there was “no indication” of a cyberattack, despite ongoing investigations into the causes of the power outage on Monday. He added that he anticipated the restoration of electrical power “in the coming hours” when he spoke to reporters.
Additionally, the National Cybersecurity Center in Portugal stated that there is no evidence that the disruption was caused by a cyberattack.
The Portuguese company that transmits electricity, REN, claimed a unique atmospheric phenomenon caused by extreme temperature variations in the country’s interior was to blame for the power outages across the Iberian Peninsula.
Following the outage, which briefly affected a portion of France that borders northeastern Spain, the governments of Spain and Portugal convened emergency cabinet meetings.
Eduardo Prieto, the head of REE’s grid operations, stated in a press release that it would take six to ten hours to restore power to the Spanish electric grid. Red Electrica, Spain’s grid operator, later reported that parts of northern, southern, and western Spain now have electricity back.
To avoid traffic chaos, the Spanish government urged residents to stay put. The government is putting all resources into action to stop this incident as quickly as possible, according to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s office.
The European Commission said it was “in contact” with local authorities to “understand the underlying cause” of the blackout. A representative for the EU’s executive arm said, “The commission will keep monitoring the situation and ensure that all relevant parties exchange information smoothly.”
subway networks and traffic lights are destroyed by an outage.
According to Cadena SER radio station, there were traffic jams in the Madrid city center as the city’s traffic lights ceased to operate, as well as stranded commuters and lifts.
As the phone lines sever, panicked residents unsuccessfully attempted to signal themselves. I can’t even call my family, my parents, or anything else because there is no phone coverage, according to Carlos Condori, who told AFP. Because this has never occurred in Spain, “people are stunned.”
As police attempted to control the volume of traffic in Cibeles Square, one of the busiest thoroughfares in Spain, the blackout of traffic lights sounded like a jumble of sirens, whistles, and car horns.
According to Step Vaessen of Al Jazeera, who is based in Valencia, the outage initially appeared to be temporary, and “everyone continued doing their normal business.” It later turned out to be much larger. Traffic lights and ATMs are both not functioning.
As scoreboards went out of focus and overhead cameras were power out, the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, causing Grigor Dimitrov, 15, and Jacob Fearnley, 28, to be forced off the court.
According to the Portuguese police, trains were halted and the metro was shut down in Lisbon and Porto, and traffic lights were down across the nation.
According to Portugal’s utility REN, “all plans for the gradual restoration of energy supply are being worked on in concert with European energy producers and operators.”
The National Civil Protection Authority is one of the official contacts that REN maintains. The potential causes of this incident are being investigated at the same time, according to a spokesperson.
According to REN, it may take up to a week to fully restore the nation’s power grid.
Grid operator RTE claimed that while there was a brief outage, power had been restored in France. It was looking into the issue.
Spain and Portugal are currently the victims of an electrical incident, according to RTE. “Homes in the Basque Country were without power for a number of minutes in France.” Since then, all power has been restored.
RTE claimed that its teams had already been mobilized to assist the Spanish grid operator and that RTE had already restored 700MW of Spanish consumption via France.
Source: Aljazeera
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