Samantha Mythen
AS the lights start to switch on again across Spain and Portugal, an investigation into the cause of the power cut which left the two nations without power for more than four hours continues.
The European Council president Anontio Costa said there were no indications the power outage was caused by a cyber attack at this stage.
Rather, Costa told the BBC, he was in touch with both the Spanish and Portugese prime ministers, with both countries, ‘working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply,’ he said.
The Portugese electricity operator Rede Electrica Nacional says the unprecedented outage was caused by a ‘rare’ atmospheric phenomenon, related to changes in temperatures.
It says: “Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior or Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 KV), a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration'”.
“These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”
The Portugese operator has said the fault first came from the Spanish electricity grid.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hosted an ‘extraordinary’ meeting with the nation’s security council this afternoon.
The Olive Press had been reporting from Chefs for Children, an annual fundraising event held this year on Costa Del Sol where Spain’s top Michelin Star chefs share their culinary skills with local school children.
Power cut off around 12:30pm during the press conference, yet the show went on, with chefs sharing what had inspired them to take part in the event raising funds for Spain’s diabetes foundation.
The school children oblivious to the , happily enjoyed spending their afternoon outside in the sunshine whipping up fresh salads and learning the best cutting techniques under the guidance of the best chefs in the business.
The Costa del Sol traffic started to build by around 2pm, but it appeared no one was panicking.
People continued to enjoy the 22-degree weather, with plenty out walking their dogs or lounging outside at local restaurants drinking slightly cold beers they paid for in cash, happy to enjoy a spontaneous afternoon off work.
Stay tuned for further developments.
READ MORE:
- EXPLAINER: What is ‘inertia’, how did renewable energy sources contribute to Spain’s nationwide blackout – and how did they get the power back?
- Power starts to return to parts of Spain as national grid claims ‘exceptional and totally extraordinary’ blackout will take six to 10 hours to repair
