A sudden and widespread power outage struck large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, April 28, 2025, causing significant disruptions across the Iberian Peninsula. The blackout, which affected major cities including Madrid and Lisbon, brought public transportation to a standstill, knocked out mobile networks, and left millions grappling with the fallout.
According to Spain’s state-owned power grid operator, Red Eléctrica, the entire peninsula experienced a near-total loss of electricity around midday. The outage crippled critical infrastructure, with trains across Spain’s national railway network, Renfe, coming to a halt and metro systems in Madrid and Lisbon shutting down. Passengers were evacuated from stranded trains, with some forced to walk through darkened tunnels to safety. Airports, including Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona’s El Prat, reported delays of up to an hour, with air traffic operating at reduced capacity due to non-functional boarding bridges.
The blackout also disrupted communication networks, with 5G, broadband, and landline services going offline in both countries. Traffic lights stopped functioning, leading to chaotic traffic jams in city centers. At the Madrid Open tennis tournament, matches were suspended as scoreboards and cameras failed, leaving players and fans in the dark.
Portugal’s energy distributor, E-Redes, attributed the outage to a fault in the European electricity grid, which also impacted parts of southern France, including the Basque Coast and Burgundy regions. Red Eléctrica reported a dramatic drop in Spain’s electricity demand, from 27,500 MW to nearly 15,000 MW, within moments of the outage. The company stated that restoration efforts were underway, with power gradually being restored in northern and southern Spain by early afternoon.
Spanish authorities, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, convened at Red Eléctrica’s headquarters to assess the crisis, while emergency services urged the public to avoid non-essential calls. In Galicia, officials confirmed that emergency systems were running on backup generators. The cause of the outage remains unclear, though E-Redes suggested it stemmed from issues in high-voltage lines across the European grid.
The unaffected regions included Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla. As restoration efforts continue, officials estimate it may take several hours to fully restore power, with some projections suggesting a timeline of 6-10 hours. The incident has sparked concerns about the resilience of Europe’s energy infrastructure, with authorities pledging a thorough investigation into the blackout’s origins
