Widespread power outage in Spain and Portugal

This sounds big enough to require a black start. Unfortunately, those are slow and difficult.<p>If an entire nation trips offline then every generator station disconnects itself from the grid and the grid itself snaps apart into islands. To bring it back you have to disconnect consumer loads and then re-energize a small set of plants that have dedicated black start capability. Thermal plants require energy to start up and renewables require external sources of inertia for frequency stabilization, so this usually requires turning on a small diesel generator that creates enough power to bootstrap a bigger generator and so on up until there&#x27;s enough electricity to start the plant itself. With that back online the power from it can be used to re-energize other plants that lack black start capability in a chain until you have a series of isolated islands. Those islands then have to be synchronized and reconnected, whilst simultaneously bringing load online in large blocks.<p>The whole thing is planned for, but you can&#x27;t really rehearse for it. During a black start the grid is highly unstable. If something goes wrong then it can trip out again during the restart, sending you back to the beginning. It&#x27;s especially likely if the original blackout caused undetected equipment damage, or if it was caused by such damage.<p>In the UK contingency planning assumes a black start could take up to 72 hours, although if things go well it would be faster. It&#x27;s one reason it&#x27;s a good idea to always have some cash at home.<p><i>Edit: There&#x27;s a press release about a 2016 black start drill in Spain&#x2F;Portugal here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ree.es&#x2F;en&#x2F;press-office&#x2F;press-release&#x2F;2016&#x2F;11&#x2F;spain-portugal-and-france-conduct-a-joint-response-drill-to-a-general-blackout" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ree.es&#x2F;en&#x2F;press-office&#x2F;press-release&#x2F;2016&#x2F;11&#x2F;spa...</a> </i>

I&#x27;m going with: never attribute to malice what can be explained by ... an incredibly complex system that can fall over even if no-one&#x27;s being stupid. I would want very strong evidence before I believe this is an attack.<p>There is precedent for major power outages, a huge majority of which are not malicious: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_major_power_outages" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_major_power_outages</a><p>I remember the day when the Swiss railway power network went down for a day (in 2005) because one power line was down for maintenance and someone pressed the wrong button and produced a short circuit somewhere else. It&#x27;s a bit like the incidents in planes were one engine has a problem and the crew shut down the other one by mistake.

You can see the crash on the ENTSO-E live data: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;transparency.entsoe.eu&#x2F;generation&#x2F;r2&#x2F;actualGenerationPerProductionType&#x2F;show?name=&amp;defaultValue=false&amp;viewType=GRAPH&amp;areaType=BZN&amp;atch=false&amp;datepicker-day-offset-select-dv-date-from_input=D&amp;dateTime.dateTime=28.04.2025%2000:00|CET%7CDAYTIMERANGE&amp;dateTime.endDateTime=28.04.2025%2000:00|CET%7CDAYTIMERANGE&amp;area.values=CTY%7C10YES-REE------0!BZN%7C10YES-REE------0&amp;productionType.values=B01&amp;productionType.values=B02&amp;productionType.values=B03&amp;productionType.values=B04&amp;productionType.values=B05&amp;productionType.values=B06&amp;productionType.values=B07&amp;productionType.values=B08&amp;productionType.values=B09&amp;productionType.values=B10&amp;productionType.values=B11&amp;productionType.values=B12&amp;productionType.values=B13&amp;productionType.values=B14&amp;productionType.values=B20&amp;productionType.values=B15&amp;productionType.values=B16&amp;productionType.values=B17&amp;productionType.values=B18&amp;productionType.values=B19&amp;dateTime.timezone=CET_CEST&amp;dateTime.timezone_input=CET+(UTC+1)+&#x2F;+CEST+(UTC+2)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;transparency.entsoe.eu&#x2F;generation&#x2F;r2&#x2F;actualGeneratio...</a><p>Three quarter of the production disconnects from the grid between 12:30 and 13:00, with only a bit of solar and onshore wind sticking around.

Apparently a local grid overload near France and a cascading failure down the Spanish network, but radio and newspapers don’t agree on root cause. Of course there is a lot of noise.<p>For instance, one reporter asked one of the government flunkies whether it could be a cyberattack and they turned his noncommittal “maybe, we don’t know” into “government says cyberattack may be ongoing”.<p>Be careful of idiot reporters out there.<p>Edit: I’m listening to another radio interview where they are outlining the plans to bring online Portuguese dams and thermal generators over the next few hours, progressively unplugging from the Spanish supply (fortunately we have enough of those, apparently).<p>It should take 3-4 hours to get everything balanced with only national supplies, and they will restore power from North to South.

I experienced it first hand in Madrid. This was much scarier than I would have imagined.<p>News travelled extremely slow: phone coverage was just barely enough to receive a couple text messages every 15 minutes or so. News spread on the street, I even saw a group of 20 people hunched around someone owning a hand-held radio in the streets.<p>Just before power was restored, things started to get worse, as the phone coverage went completely out (presumably batteries were depleted). People were in between enjoying the work-free day, and starting to worry about how tomorrow would look like if power didn&#x27;t come back.

What caused it? The Portuguese prime minister, Luís Montenegro, said that the issue originated in Spain. Portugal’s REN said a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” had caused a severe imbalance in temperatures that led to the widespread shutdowns.<p>REN said: “Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of 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.”<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;2025&#x2F;apr&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-and-portugal-power-outage-cause-cyber-attack-electricity" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;2025&#x2F;apr&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-and-p...</a>

A fire in the south-west of France, which damaged a high-voltage power line has also been identified as a possible cause:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.euronews.com&#x2F;my-europe&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-portugal-and-parts-of-france-hit-by-massive-power-outage" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.euronews.com&#x2F;my-europe&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-portugal...</a>

You can track the outage with CloudFlare&#x27;s traffic radar page too:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;radar.cloudflare.com&#x2F;es?dateRange=1d" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;radar.cloudflare.com&#x2F;es?dateRange=1d</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;radar.cloudflare.com&#x2F;pt?dateRange=1d" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;radar.cloudflare.com&#x2F;pt?dateRange=1d</a><p>Portugal nearly reached zero.

It looks like the Iberian peninsula is relatively isolated from the rest of the CESA synchronous grid, with only 2% cross-border capacity compared to local generation. [1]<p>There&#x27;s a map at [2]<p>&gt; The Spanish electricity system is currently connected to the systems of France, Portugal, Andorra and Morocco. The exchange capacity of this interconnection is around 3 GW, which represents a low level of interconnection for the peninsula. The international interconnection level is calculated by comparing the electricity exchange capacity with other countries with the generation capacity or installed power.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ree.es&#x2F;en&#x2F;ecological-transition&#x2F;electricity-interconnections" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ree.es&#x2F;en&#x2F;ecological-transition&#x2F;electricity-inte...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.entsoe.eu&#x2F;data&#x2F;map&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.entsoe.eu&#x2F;data&#x2F;map&#x2F;</a>

One guy simulated Australia&#x27;s electrical grid for 3 years to show that the entire grid could run off of &gt;98% renewable energy using the installed renewables with just a small amount of storage (e.g. 5 hours of average demand, ~10% of demand over the entire period).<p>To me this indicates that in many energy markets where renewables are sufficiently built out, the only factor for why we aren&#x27;t using them more is the storage capacity and grid infrastructure to handle their variability -- and instead just running stable but dirty energy systems.<p>There are a lot of cool mechanical grid systems like gravity batteries (e.g. weights on a pulley system) [2] or compressed or liquid air storage systems [3] which provide cheaper storage at higher capacities and durations than electric batteries<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reneweconomy.com.au&#x2F;a-near-100-per-cent-renewable-grid-is-readily-achievable-and-affordable&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reneweconomy.com.au&#x2F;a-near-100-per-cent-renewable-gr...</a> 2. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=trA5s2iGj2A" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=trA5s2iGj2A</a> 3. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=fjERw-Ol-_s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=fjERw-Ol-_s</a>

4 years ago this almost happened:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gridradar.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;blog&#x2F;post&#x2F;underfrequency_january_2021" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gridradar.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;blog&#x2F;post&#x2F;underfrequency_january_20...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.linkedin.com&#x2F;pulse&#x2F;day-europes-power-grid-almost-faced-massiveblackout-gregor-novak&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.linkedin.com&#x2F;pulse&#x2F;day-europes-power-grid-almost...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.acer.europa.eu&#x2F;news&#x2F;continental-europe-electricity-system-separation-incident-8-january-2021-next-steps#:~:text=Continental%20Europe%20electricity%20system%20separation,www.acer.europa.eu" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.acer.europa.eu&#x2F;news&#x2F;continental-europe-electrici...</a><p>I remember it because power went out in at least 1&#x2F;3 of Romania back then.

Older readers may remeber the Northeastern blackout of 2003 in the US and Canada that was caused by cascading overloading, I believe originally triggered by high loads due to hot weather and poor vegetation maintenance under lines.<p>I was an an adjacent area at the time and iirc we were saved by our nuclear operator releasing some insane amount of steam to bring the supply down and avoid more overloading.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Northeast_blackout_of_2003" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Northeast_blackout_of_2003</a>

Portugal has no electricity as we speak. Funny enough telcos and 4G&#x2F;5G are fine for now, I&#x27;m guessing batteries and diesel backups kicked in and are doing their job.

There&#x27;s a map of realtime load flow here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gridradar.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;wide-area-monitoring-system" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gridradar.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;wide-area-monitoring-system</a> (currently shows Spain and Portugal as &#x27;offline&#x27;)

Remember folks, there&#x27;s about 1% chance of a Carrington event occurrence every year. We&#x27;re simply not ready.

People are not voting this up to top because they&#x27;re offline. This outage is quite massive.

I&#x27;m in Valencia and it is indeed happening here. A street parade under my windows continues nonetheless.

I live in Madrid, and when the electricity came back around 22:00, people started cheering and celebrating in the street. You could hear how each neighbourhood was going back online.<p>It’s funny to think how the moment is goes off you feel nothing, but hearing that many people produce noise and express happiness makes your body notice instantly, a sensation we often describe as electric.

Grids are tricky, because the electric socket is kind of a leaky abstraction for heavy plant machinery in turbines of thermal plants, load balancing, synchronisation, and a gazillion other things I really don&#x27;t understand.<p>Is a grid built on renewables and batteries somehow more resilient? Solid state things tend to be less fiddly, hence my question.<p>I remember reading at one point in the past that renewables were actually worse for the grid due to less predictable power generation or something, but that was a long time ago, certainly pre-battery storage.

Apparently this spans more countries? Very strange. Possibly a cyberattack or sabotage?<p>Growing up in Spain I&#x27;ve never experienced anything like this (not there at the moment, but friends have told me over WhatsApp).

As of:<p><pre><code> Mon 28 Apr 2025 07:22:00 EDT Mon 28 Apr 2025 11:22:00 UTC </code></pre> this is breaking just minutes ago:<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;live&#x2F;c9wpq8xrvd9t" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;live&#x2F;c9wpq8xrvd9t</a> (rolling updates)<p>* <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2025-04-28&#x2F;most-of-spain-hit-by-electricity-outage-for-unknown-reason" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;articles&#x2F;20...</a><p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rte.ie&#x2F;news&#x2F;world&#x2F;2025&#x2F;0428&#x2F;1509881-spain-portugal-power-outage&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rte.ie&#x2F;news&#x2F;world&#x2F;2025&#x2F;0428&#x2F;1509881-spain-portug...</a><p>The Spanish national operator:<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ree.es&#x2F;en" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ree.es&#x2F;en</a><p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Red_Eléctrica_de_España" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Red_Eléctrica_de_España</a>

Red Electrica - red is Spanish for network, not the color (roja)

In Portugal here. Lost power about 1 hour ago. Reading the news while batteries last.

A full nationwide power outage affecting not one but three [0] countries.<p>Sounds like a major infrastructure risk given that it is possible for more than one country to experience a full loss of power.<p>EDIT: Andorra is also affected, so that is three.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lavanguardia.com&#x2F;vida&#x2F;20250428&#x2F;10624908&#x2F;caida-general-deja-suministro-electrico-toda-espana.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lavanguardia.com&#x2F;vida&#x2F;20250428&#x2F;10624908&#x2F;caida-ge...</a>

Looking forward to the postmortem

Wikipedia has an article following this:<p>&lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;2025_European_power_outage" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;2025_European_power_outage</a>&gt;

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.euronews.com&#x2F;my-europe&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-portugal-and-parts-of-france-hit-by-massive-power-outage" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.euronews.com&#x2F;my-europe&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-portugal...</a><p>&gt; A fire in the south-west of France, on the Alaric mountain, which damaged a high-voltage power line between Perpignan and eastern Narbonne, has also been identified as a possible cause.

Hello from Portugal. Local news is indeed reporting that power is out across all of Iberia.

To remember: in the early hours of this morning there was a huge purchase&#x2F;transfer of monero that increased the price +30% (highly unusual) and a few hours later before lunch time we see Iberia disconnected from the grid.<p>Monero is the favorite payment coin when ordering real cyber attacks.

I am currently in my work office in Madrid, main building has electricity so I guess they have some backup generators, the kitchen however is out of service.<p>According to local newspapers metro network, airport and traffic lights are all down

Some parts of Spain are slowly coming back online <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;RedElectricaREE&#x2F;status&#x2F;1916818043235164267" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;RedElectricaREE&#x2F;status&#x2F;1916818043235164267</a>

Here&#x27;s a &quot;real time&quot; map of electricity production and flow between countries: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;app.electricitymaps.com&#x2F;map&#x2F;72h&#x2F;hourly" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;app.electricitymaps.com&#x2F;map&#x2F;72h&#x2F;hourly</a><p>Would be interesting to see if it will register here.

I saw it on twitter and had to go to BBC to make sure this isn&#x27;t some joke or hoax. 2025 and we have National level power cuts?<p>I know it may be rare but I think some day we really need to move or mandate every single flat &#x2F; home &#x2F; apartment &#x2F; living places to have a 12 - 24 hours backup battery included. Something that has 10K+ Cycles, durable and non-flammable. Not only does it make sure our modern lives without sudden interruption, it also solves the renewable energy problem.

Practical Engineering YouTube channel black start video: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;uOSnQM1Zu4w" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;uOSnQM1Zu4w</a>

- <i>&quot;[Portugese electric network Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN)] said: “Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of 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.”&quot;</i><p>- <i>&quot;The risks posed to electrical systems by big variations in atmospheric temperatures are well known in the industry, even if it is rare for problems to manifest on this scale.&quot;</i><p>- <i>&quot;“Due to the variation of the temperature, the parameters of the conductor change slightly,” said Taco Engelaar, managing director at Neara, a software provider to energy utilities. “It creates an imbalance in the frequency.”&quot;</i><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;2025&#x2F;apr&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-and-portugal-power-outage-cause-cyber-attack-electricity" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;2025&#x2F;apr&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-and-p...</a> (<i>&quot;Spain and Portugal power outage: what caused it, and was there a cyber-attack?&quot;</i>)

Parts of France are also affected according to Sky:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.sky.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;large-parts-of-spain-and-portugal-hit-by-power-outage-13357374" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.sky.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;large-parts-of-spain-and-portugal...</a>

Madrid Mayor said<p>&gt; If emergency calls go unanswered, go to the police and the fire stations in person<p>That&#x27;s not a statement I expect to see in relation to a developed city

A line that disturbed me with just how widespread the outage is. (And also people will die from it in all sorts of weird ways)<p>&quot;In an update, Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica says it&#x27;s beginning to recover power in the NORTH and SOUTH of the country.&quot;

Well obviously. Computers use electricity, so if the grid goes out so does internet traffic. Local data centers might have backup power but local homes and everything in between the homes and the data center probably won&#x27;t.

Seems to have briefly expanded into France and even Belgium had issues.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.euronews.com&#x2F;my-europe&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-portugal-and-parts-of-france-hit-by-massive-power-outage" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.euronews.com&#x2F;my-europe&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;spain-portugal...</a><p>Edit: BBC reports it now also <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;live&#x2F;c9wpq8xrvd9t" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;live&#x2F;c9wpq8xrvd9t</a>

Is there a La Liga game on perhaps :)

I’m in Spain. Internet here is very unstable now also.

On a slight side note if anyone has any good references to read on grid stability and resilience please reply.<p>Ex Electronic Engineer interest.

Two days ago someone cut a whole overland power pylon in Germany…

I hope somebody building and selling microgrids and energy storage systems is ready to take advantage of this situation. Mass deployment of batteries at the grid edge is a great idea for a lot of reasons, but none more immediately compelling than &quot;the power won&#x27;t go out if the grid goes down.&quot;

For those not aware how interconnected the European Grid is: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;storpower.co.uk&#x2F;the-day-europes-power-grid-came-close-to-a-massive-blackout&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;storpower.co.uk&#x2F;the-day-europes-power-grid-came-clos...</a>

Living in Maine makes you prepared for this type of stuff.<p>It happens every winter. When I was a kid, we once went 2 weeks without electricity.<p>Wood stove becomes an obvious necessity. Not just for staying warm. For cooking.<p>Chickens in the backyard too.<p>Those moments show you that being self-sufficient is an extremely important skill, and while we&#x27;re not totally self sufficient in those moments, we get pretty darn close.<p>Really makes you appreciate the pre-electric era.<p>People cut down forests with axes. Pulled the stumps out with oxen. Cut the lumber with hand saws. Chiseled foundations with pickaxes. Etc, etc.<p>With the constant threat of Nuclear War, there&#x27;s a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads that we will return to this era.<p>That makes it all the more important to learn these skills.

It&#x27;s fascinating to see simulations of power grid disturbances propagating due to the limited speed of light&#x2F;causality: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;5vAkdXRyKWM?t=713" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;5vAkdXRyKWM?t=713</a>

We had power on the canary islands (belong to spain, but located in the atlantic ocean ~80km west of Africa) since it is an independent grid. But couple of hours into the blackout (starting 5-6pm local time), internet issues occured - with confirmed multiple landline providers going offline (Digi, Movistar) while others seems to continue to work (Vodafone). Also some cellular 5G were affected, otheres continued. Interested to see the postmorten - I suspect after 8-10h the data center&#x27;s diesel generators on the peninsula that route the traffic ran empty. Internet operation resumed during the night (for me around 1am).

First episode of Connections is great to watch on blackouts and technological dependence <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ</a>

I&#x27;ve lost power at 11:30 and regained at 00:12 (Portugal). My hat&#x27;s off to those brave engineers and technicians that managed to black start the ancient, under-invested grid in record time. Massive respect.

Mobile network is fully gone on the islands now — it was working until ~10 minutes ago.

Regardless of the source of this specific issue, I suspect investment in infrastructure security and resilience is about to ramp up.<p>Calling attention to how fragile many of our critical systems are is almost certanly a net-positive in the long run.

I&#x27;m wondering: are there any simulator games in which you have to take care of the stability of a nation-wide power grid? This whole situation has me interested in logistics of power distribution now.

The last major European blackout was in 2006:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;2006_European_blackout" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;2006_European_blackout</a>

Confirmed by contacts on the ground in Spain and Portugal.<p>Not the best news source, but it’s the only one I’ve found so far. HN moderators, feel free to replace it later with a better one.<p>Supposedly also France is affected (unconfirmed)

I have family in Andalusia and they seem to have dropped off the net. Mildly concerning.<p>Also, there are currently four different submissions re this on the front page. I&#x27;d suggest we dont need any more.

Yup I confirm. Went to turn on the car to hear the radio. Andorra seems to have power from French side, though in Catalunya we do not.<p>Should have paid the extra €€ to put the solar panels in backup mode…

I&#x27;m from Spain, electricity is almost fully restored in my area. But my fiber network is still down, same with the buildin elevators. People do not realise that when the backup supplies (batteries, diesel, whatever...) get drained, a cold start of non electric infrastructure could also be needed because syncornizing a mesh of unstable IT systems is tricky by itself, in some cases needing physical access.<p>EDIT:: typos

It&#x27;s surprising how vulnerable electric supply can be.

Power back at 20:30 approx in some Madrid province locations at this point most of Madrid should have power.

The privatization of infrastructure in Europe has been a disaster. The only area where at least prices went down are telecommunication companies.<p>The postal services are worse now. Railway is more expensive and a disaster. Energy prices are sky high and apparently now we also see unreliability.

This is a really good stress test. I’m impressed that communications still seem to work somewhat for now.

Yeah we only have telecoms and unreliable at times. If power doesnt comeback soon that too will fail.

Live view of the grid status, phase, and frequency as everything comes back online: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gridradar.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;wide-area-monitoring-system" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gridradar.net&#x2F;en&#x2F;wide-area-monitoring-system</a>

CNN story: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;edition.cnn.com&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;europe&#x2F;spain-portugal-power-outages-intl&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;edition.cnn.com&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;europe&#x2F;spain-portugal-pow...</a>

As of 2 min ago..( 14:32 WEST ) in many parts of Portugal electricity still out, and also Water systems also offline. Report is for some it can take up to 10 to 12 hours before power back up. Probably many locals not reporting here as they are low on battery.

Apparently Italy is also affected.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.elconfidencial.com&#x2F;espana&#x2F;2025-04-28&#x2F;directo-cortes-luz-espana-portugal_4117946&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.elconfidencial.com&#x2F;espana&#x2F;2025-04-28&#x2F;directo-cor...</a>

This outage does not affect the islands, at least in Portugal. Madeira has power.

I’m close to Valencia and we’ve had no electricity for about an hour.

How can we follow this story? Who&#x27;s updating in real time?

Knowing what I know about powersystems, it&#x27;s a miracle electricity ever works and the people who manage it are silent heros. Please buy them a drink

For offline messaging over Bluetooth&#x2F;Wi-Fi without internet or central infrastructure, I saw these recommended by ChatGPT Deep research and they seem current: Bridgefy (Android &amp; iOS) – direct Bluetooth mesh within ~100 m, instant one-to-one &amp; group chat, &lt;1 min install. Berty (Android &amp; iOS) – E2E-encrypted over Bluetooth&#x2F;Wi-Fi; Briar (Android) – E2E-encrypted over Bluetooth&#x2F;Wi-Fi with Tor fallback. Manyverse (Android, iOS, Desktop) – offline-first social feed that syncs posts over Bluetooth&#x2F;Wi-Fi when peers meet. Can anyone vouch for these or know better?

I&#x27;m in Portugal. Mobile data was slow when it started, now it&#x27;s much better.<p>The sunny weather is very inviting outside for someone with the day off :-)

grid ops discussion on reddit about it <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;Grid_Ops&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1k9uov6&#x2F;major_outage_in_spain_and_portugal&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;Grid_Ops&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1k9uov6&#x2F;major_out...</a>

Wild that cloudflare was first to report this. At least first I saw.<p>I guess news networks don’t have comparable access to live metrics

I&#x27;ve heard from friends in France, Portugal and I am in Spain. I saw people are also mentioning parts of Italy.

AC is overly complex and too reactive.

I can confirm (I&#x27;m from Portugal)

They just reported on TV it will be on again in 20min earliest (15:30 CEST)

Anyone read Blackout[1]? So it begins. Both countries completed (or almost completed) their smart meter rollout…<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Blackout_(Elsberg_novel)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Blackout_(Elsberg_novel)</a>

Getting two network bars in Madeira. Seems to be affecting 4G&#x2F;5G now.

Grady over on Practical Engineering is going to be so excited (-;

Same happened in Murcia. Just thought it was a normal power outage!!

My experience of it in Lisbon was undramatic. I was able to buy medication from the pharmacy. Life continued as usual more or less apart from some inconveniences, people playing cards in the street and a sense of everyone stepping away from the tech. Eyes were rolled as the reflexive suggestions of &quot;putin&quot; were inevitably voiced, more to make conversation than anything else. I met neighbours that I&#x27;d never talked to before, and reconnected with some I hadn&#x27;t talked to for years. People played guitar on their balconies rather than spotify bluetooth speaker pop. The neighbourhood cheered as it came back online but part of me, selfishly, would have liked a few more hours of blackout.<p>Would have been a very different story if it were a week rather than a day, but I was left with a sense that this complex community of locals and foreigners is stronger than I previously suspected.

&gt; The Portuguese electricity operator earlier said the outage was caused by a &quot;rare&quot; atmospheric phenomenon, related to variations in temperatures<p>Global warming&#x2F;climate change strikes again

barcelona has been out for the past 20 minutes or so

Practical Engineer YT religious watcher here.

Power is back on some parts of Lisbon

Got reports from Toledo and Madrid

Sounds like China 30 years ago

i had an appointment in Barcelona, but can only guess it’s not safe on the roads

Maybe the grid upgrade should be to DC to get something hopefully more stable?

Yes, it’s happening

Carrington event?

Murcia is also without power. We live in the campo so presumed it was a normal outage. Obviously not

[flagged]

&gt; &quot;I currently don&#x27;t have any internet service and just €15 in my wallet - I can&#x27;t withdraw any money from the ATM,&quot; she added.<p>from: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.sky.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;large-parts-of-spain-and-portugal-hit-by-power-outage-13357374" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.sky.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;large-parts-of-spain-and-portugal...</a><p>This is literally the whistleblowers about cashless society have been warning everyone about for well over a decade now.

Reported here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43819791#43820127">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43819791#43820127</a>

Call me crazy but I&#x27;d love to see full power outage at least once in my life

Genuine question: how is it that Ukraine’s electricity grid still works to any degree despite being bombed for years and no doubt intentionally sabotaged &#x2F; cyber attacked.<p>But a whole country’s grid can go down like this in an instant?

Source?

Green energy! Maybe nuclear and fossil fuels would help?

Local betting site had odds if this was a attack by russia

Europe still has many megawatts of solar with inverters that disconnect when detecting any grid disruption.<p>This is the absolute worst thing to do when there is a shortage of power - you immediately make the shortage worse and more grid disconnects.<p>The <i>real</i> fix is a grid with second by second pricing based on system frequency, and every individual user allowed to set a daily &#x27;spend cap&#x27; of euros&#x2F;dollars, letting them choose how much they are willing to pay for reliability.<p>Such an market has a huge stabilizing effect on demand, meaning a major incident would probably only have fairly small impacts on system frequency and embedded solar wouldn&#x27;t disconnect.

The &quot;Blackout&quot; novel comes to mind: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Blackout_(Elsberg_novel)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Blackout_(Elsberg_novel)</a>

Relevant:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pv-magazine.com&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;22&#x2F;spain-hits-first-weekday-of-100-renewable-power-on-national-grid&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pv-magazine.com&#x2F;2025&#x2F;04&#x2F;22&#x2F;spain-hits-first-week...</a>

Apparently Europ network came close to shutdown due to frequency drop as the result: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;shellenberger&#x2F;status&#x2F;1916914966663434493?s=46" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;shellenberger&#x2F;status&#x2F;1916914966663434493?s=46</a>

&gt; Spain&#x27;s electricity grid operator Red Electrica has confirmed power outages across the country.<p>That’s why you still need a strong diesel&#x2F;diesel-electric locomotive fleet, imagine if Spain had been right in the middle military mobilization and military materiel transport, an event like this one would have stopped then dead in the tracks had they been relying only on electric locomotives.