Walter Finch
SPAIN experienced a massive, nationwide power outage at around 12.30pm today.
Reports came in from Madrid, Malaga, Sevilla, Bilbao and Cadiz and even Portugal, while further reports indicated other countries in Europe also suffered regional blackouts.
Briefly, Gibraltar was the only region on the Iberian peninsula with electricity before it started to return to certain parts of Spain.
It has now been announced that voltage has returned in substations in several areas of the north, south and west of the peninsula.
Red Electrica, the Spanish national grid, state it ‘continues to work with all resources to achieve the restoration of supply as soon as possible throughout the entire territory.’
“The main objective of the works in this phase of the replacement is to provide voltage to the generation groups.”
Eduardo Prieto, the Director of Operations at Red Electrica, has said in a press conference the full restoration of Spain’s electricity service could take between six and ten hours.
He carefully avoided speculating on what caused the incident, but mentioned that what led to the blackout were oscillations in power flows across the network of the Spanish electrical system.
Hospitals and airports are currently running on generators. The former are expected to have between 24 and 48 hours of diesel fuel to maintain vital services, while airports should be able to continue for up to 72 hours without power from the grid.
Traffic lights have stopped working, causing traffic chaos in cities and junctions throughout the country. Airplanes are grounded on the runway and there are fears for ones still in the air.
The Spanish traffic authority has asked people to avoid driving as much as possible as the power outage has taken all traffic lights and road signs offline.
“Avoid moving as much as possible and be very careful on the road,” the DGT said.
Meanwhile, play has been suspended at the Madrid Open and the tennis players have returned to their dressing rooms.
According to reports, power company Endesa blames it on a failure Spain’s national grid. The authorities are working to analyse and fix the problem.
The National Cryptologic Center is investigating whether it is a cyberattack
Spain’s National Cryptologic Centre (CCN) is investigating whether the blackout is the result of a cyberattack.
The CCN is responsible for the cybersecurity of public institutions and, together with the National Cybersecurity Institution, is responsible for protecting critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.
In recent months, Spain has become one of the countries most affected by cyberattacks due to its stance on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, El Pais writes.
Those considered critical due to their particular severity number several hundred each year.
Sources within the electrical sector report that Spain has seen an unusual number of ‘port and vulnerability scans’ in infrastructure belonging to the national grid.
“A pattern consistent with techniques of preparation for a massive cyber attack…. The observed pattern suggests a denial of service at critical infrastructure, possibly combined with an injection of malicious commands over the […] industrial communications protocols widely used in the electrical systems of Spain and Portugal.”
The latest update from the national grid is that power is already returning to some areas in the north and south of the peninsula as of 1.33pm.
Reports indicate San Roque and Algeciras in the Campo de Gibraltar now have power, while it has also returned to Bilbao and Vitoria in the Basque country.
Only the Canary Islands and the Balearics have remained unaffected within Spain, with Ceuta and Melilla presumed to also have power.
More to follow….
