Massive Power Outage Hits Spain and Portugal
- Yewon Choi
- May 7
- 1 min read
May 7, 2025
Yewon Choi
On April 28, a massive blackout struck Spain and Portugal, disrupting daily life and exposing vulnerabilities in Europe’s power infrastructure. The outage, caused by two back-to-back electrical failures in southern Spain, resulted in the loss of 15 gigawatts of electricity, about 60% of Spain’s demand, within five seconds. The blackout also affected Portugal and parts of southern France.
The impact was swift and widespread. Major train stations were overwhelmed with stranded passengers, and transportation across both countries ground to a halt. In some areas, traffic lights went out, leading to dangerous conditions. Emergency crews rescued over 35,000 people stuck on trains. Several deaths were reported, including three in Galicia due to carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator, and others from fires and medical equipment failures during the outage.
Authorities have ruled out sabotage and extreme weather, with no signs of cyberattacks. Experts suggest the rapid power loss may be linked to the instability of renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which, while eco-friendly, can strain power grids.
Power was largely restored by late Monday, though disruptions continued, particularly in train services. Portugal’s Prime Minister blamed Spain for the outage, and both countries have launched investigations.
This event highlights the critical reliance on electricity in modern society and the need for a more resilient energy grid as Europe moves towards greener power sources.
