Spain and Portugal race to restore power after massive outage across Iberian Peninsula

Spain's grid operator has restored electricity supplies to about half of the country after a huge power outage brought the Iberian Peninsula to a standstill on Monday, and the rest should be restored by Tuesday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.

Authorities late on Monday were yet to establish what had caused the blackout and were not ruling out any hypothesis, he added in a televised address.

Portugal's Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said power in the country would be fully restored in the coming hours after a massive outage hit the Iberian Peninsula most of the day.

He said all the state services remained operating in the country despite all the difficulties.

"The widespread outage of our electrical grid was caused outside the country, probably in Spain," he told a press conference.

Montenegro also said that power should be restored throughout the country "within the next few hours".

Meanwhile, the European Council president there is currently no evidence of a cyberattack in connection with the widespread power outages in Spain and Portugal.

Antonio Costa said he spoke on the phone with Sanchez and Montenegro about the ongoing blackout in Spain and Portugal.

"Grid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply," he wrote on X. He clarified that "at this point, there are no indications of any cyber attack."

The electricity went out across Portugal, Spain, and Andorra – a microstate between Spain and France – around midday Monday, also affecting parts of France.

Authorities are investigating the causes of the outage.

Spain's National Institute for Cybersecurity is also studying whether a cyberattack could be responsible.

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Source: TRT