Spain, Portugal and parts of France have suffered a large-scale power outage. The interruption in service extends to the capitals of Madrid and Lisbon, which were left without electricity and the Internet. Seville, Barcelona and Valencia were also affected.
Portugal’s grid operator attributed the outage to “extreme temperature fluctuations” in a statement provided to the Independent. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered a slightly different version, saying that there was no “convincing information” as to the cause of the outage.
The aforementioned grid operator also warned that it could take up to a week to restore power, although others suggest that everything could be restored within ten hours. Spanish energy company Red Electrica said it had already restored power to some northern areas of the Iberian Peninsula.
Due to power outages, airports are not working, and events such as the Madrid Open have been canceled. Renfe, Spain’s largest railroad operator, noted that trains were stuck at stations or on their routes due to a lack of electricity.
How exactly could extreme temperature fluctuations cause such a severe outage? It is reported that the grid experienced “abnormal fluctuations” that led to voltage fluctuations on the power lines. According to a professor who spoke to The Times, this could have knocked out power lines.
“These fluctuations have reportedly caused ‘synchronization failures’ between electrical systems, leading to successive disruptions in the interconnected European grid,” said Professor Chenghong Gu. “That’s why we’re seeing many consumers in different parts of the EU grid being disconnected.”
