Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, has opened an investigation to determine whether “an act of computer sabotage” could have been perpetrated “against critical Spanish infrastructure”. Announcing the investigation, a judge at the court said “cyberterrorism was among the possible explanations” for the blackout. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said that the country was “overcoming the worst” with most systems back up and running as he said that a similar incident must not be allowed to happen again. He said that the investigations as to the causes of the blackout were ongoing, as he promised to get to the bottom of the outage and to implement necessary reforms to prevent it in the future. The government has set up a commission to investigate the incident, he said, and will also look at the role of private energy companies. Reuters reported that Sánchez also ruled out he possibility that an excess of electricity generated by renewable sources caused the outage. The EU “will be looking into the lessons learned” from the blackout in Spain and Portugal to prevent a similar outage elsewhere in Europe, an EU spokesperson said. Speaking at the daily press briefing, the European Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho said the cut was “of un precedented magnitude” and assured that the bloc will “obviously draw the necessary conclusions, and share them, and, if necessary, take the necessary action.” “We look very closely into what were the reasons, how well were we prepared, and what are the lessons that can be drawn from such an incident. This will definitely keep all these actors busy in the coming days and weeks,” she said. Pinho said the EU was still awaiting full assessment by Spain as to the causes, as she declined to comment on speculations whether the use of renewable power could contribute to the outage. Pinho also called out mis- and disinformation circulating online yesterday, including an article featuring a made-up quote falsely attributed to commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Separately, commission spokesperson on preparedness, Eva Hrncirova, added that the Spanish and Portuguese operators are “well experience in handling high volumes of renewables in their electricity system.” Hrncirova was also asked about the EU’s recent call for Europeans to step up their preparations for any disruptions, as she said “it applies to many situations in life, being prepared is better than being badly surprised.” Portugal’s government on ruled out a cyber-attack as the cause of a sweeping blackout across the Iberian Peninsula the previous day, after Spain’s grid operator said it reached the same conclusion, AFP reported. “In Portugal, we have no information related to a cyber-attack or a hostile act at this stage,” said government spokesperson Antonio Leitao Amaro, telling CNN Portugal: “There would seem to have been an issue in the power transmission network” in Spain. Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica’s operations executive Eduardo Prieto said two consecutive events, which took place at 12.32pm on Monday and then a second-and-a-half later, pointed to a “generation disconnection” that had cut off the supply across the peninsula. While the system weathered the first event, it could not cope with the second. Prieto said the problem had originated in southwest Spain, which is where much of the country’s solar energy is generated. Portuguese power network operator REN denied on Tuesday it was behind a message circulated on social media attributing the massive blackout across the Iberian peninsula to a rare atmospheric event, AFP reported. “REN confirms we did not put out this statement,” spokesperson Bruno Silva told AFP, without giving further details. Speaking on Tuesday morning, the operator’s head of services, Eduardo Prieto, said that preliminary investigations meant “we can rule out a cybersecurity incident”. Prieto added that there was nothing to suggest “there was any kind of intrusion into the Red Eléctric control system”. Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica has preliminarily concluded that the power cut was not caused by a cybersecurity incident, the El País newspaper and the EFE news agency reported. Spain’s national meteorological office, Aemet, appeared to rule out the weather as a culprit. “During the day of 28 April, no unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena were detected, and nor were there sudden variations in the temperature in our network of meteorological stations,” said Aemet. This post was amended on 11:12 BST to remove a reference to earlier reports on potential causes of the power cut. Portuguese infrastructure minister Miguel Pinto Luz has once again suggested that the power cut originated outside Portugal, as the search for answers continues, Diário de Notícias reported. Lisbon metro appears to be back up and running. The Spanish self-employed could have lost up to €1.3bn as a result of yesterday’s power cut, the Asociación de Trabajadores Autónomos estimated. In a report carried by the Spanish news agency EFE, the group said that “today is still a difficult day” with some reporting connectivity and transport issues. It said the biggest impact was felt in the hospitality and retail sectors. Portuguese media are reporting that the Lisbon Metro was still down earlier today as the country reels off yesterday’s blackout. Service is expected to be gradually resuming throughout the morning with first lines expected to be back up by now, but the status update monitoring tool on their website does not seem to be working. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said this morning that 99.95% of energy demand has been restored in Spain, with 100% of substations back operational, as he headed for another meeting of the national security council. “Thank you to all citizens for once again being an example of responsibility and civic spirit,” he said. The Portuguese government is also expected to meet later this morning. It earlier issues a short social media update confirming the return of largely normal operations. Lights flickered back to life across most of Spain and Portugal after a massive blackout hit the Iberian peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and elevators while millions lost phone and internet coverage. As of Tuesday morning, both Spain and Portugal reported power supplies almost back to normal with the network stabilised after the largest power cut in Europe’s recent history. On Monday night, many went to bed in darkness, while others posted videos online celebrating the gradual return of power after many hours off-grid. But for a continent so willing to talk up its efforts on energy security – with many leaders attending a high-level summit on this only last week – there will be many persistent questions that need urgent answers. How do you so easily get a blackout affecting some 60 million people? What caused it? And, crucially, can it be prevented from happening at this – or larger – scale ever again? Many will also study the mis- and disinformation on the causes or the culprits behind the blackout that managed to get traction during the blackout, with both Spanish and Portuguese governments forced to issue direct warning against speculations and reports online. Despite the energy back on this morning, the disruption is likely to remain for a bit longer, as trains and planes are out of position and other processes are disrupted. I will bring you all the latest. It’s Tuesday, 29 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live. Good morning.
Author: Jakub Krupa