Spain and Portugal have been paralyzed by a sudden collapse of the electrical grid.
Authorities are investigating a possible cyber attack as well.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, speaks of an unexplained disappearance of a large amount of power from the grid, and France has transmitted up to 2,000 megawatts of energy to Spain and Portugal, equivalent to two nuclear reactors.
Mysterious disappearance of energy
According to Spanish authorities, it all started at 12:33 (local time) when 15 gigawatts of electrical energy suddenly disappeared from the national grid — equivalent to 60% of Spain's total consumption at that time.
"It has never happened before," said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in a press conference on Monday evening, quoted by Politico.
Iberian network disconnected from Europe
The sudden drop in capacity severely destabilized Spain's electrical grid, integrated with Portugal's and connected through limited interconnections with France.
Just five minutes after the initial power loss, the entire Iberian network was automatically disconnected from the rest of Europe, explained Eduardo Prieto, director of the Spanish operator Red Eléctrica.
"There was a very strong oscillation in the electrical grid that led to the automatic disconnection of the system from the European grid at 12:38," he specified.
Major impact on infrastructure
The outage affected public transportation networks, traffic lights, hospitals, and payment systems. In Portugal, the National Energy Network (REN) managed to restore electricity to approximately 2.5 million customers throughout the day.
Spain has managed to restore nearly 50% of power supply by Monday evening, according to Prime Minister Sánchez. However, the situation remains uneven: "Some autonomous communities have recovered up to 97% of supply, while others are still below 15%," he said.
Investigation hypotheses: malfunction or cyber attack?
Although the exact cause of the outage has not been determined, all scenarios are being considered.
The Spanish Prime Minister announced that "no hypothesis has been ruled out," and the Joint Cyber Command, along with the National Cryptology Center, have opened investigations to determine if the incident could be the result of a cyber attack.
Spain's strong support for Ukraine and opposition to the war in Gaza have made the country a possible target for cyber attacks, according to political analysts.
France intervenes with power equivalent to two nuclear reactors
To support the destabilized network, the French network operator RTE transmitted up to 2,000 megawatts of electrical energy to Spain and Portugal on Monday evening, equivalent to two nuclear reactors.
By 20:35, REE (the Spanish operator) had already announced the restoration of over 35% of the grid in mainland Spain.
"Work from home!"
To manage the effects of the power outage, the Spanish government mobilized 30,000 law enforcement members across the country, including reserve units.
Pedro Sánchez urged citizens to "remain calm" and work from home on Tuesday, if possible.