Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appears after the extraordinary meeting of the National Security Council to report on the massive blackout that affected much of Spain and Portugal on April 28, 2025.
Causes of the blackout: Sánchez explained that, according to Red Eléctrica, the outage was due to a "strong oscillation" in the European electricity system, which caused a power outage in Spain, Portugal, and southern France. However, he emphasized that there is still no conclusive information on the exact cause of the outage and that no hypothesis has been ruled out, including cyberattacks, extreme weather conditions, or technical failures.
Call to the public: He asked the public to seek information only through official channels to prevent the spread of hoaxes and misinformation. He also urged people to minimize travel and use cell phones responsibly to avoid overloading communication networks.
Measures adopted: The Government activated a Level 3 emergency in regions such as Madrid, Andalusia, and Extremadura, which requires the intervention of the Army and centralization of crisis management from the Executive branch. Sánchez also informed the King, the parliamentary groups, and his European and NATO partners about the situation.
Power restoration: Power has been restored in several regions in the north and south of the Iberian Peninsula. Sánchez highlighted the reactivation of hydroelectric plants across the country, which should allow power to be restored throughout Spain soon.
Context of the blackout
The blackout, considered one of the most serious in recent European history, began around 12:30 p.m. and affected millions of people in Spain and Portugal. The failure paralyzed key infrastructure such as trains, subways, airports, traffic lights, and hospitals, in addition to disrupting telecommunications and banking services. Red Eléctrica reported a sudden drop of 10 GW of consumption, disconnecting the Spanish electricity system from the European grid.
Portuguese authorities indicated that the blackout could have originated in Spain, due to the electrical interconnection between the two countries.
Although a cyberattack has been ruled out, the possibility that extreme weather conditions caused abnormal fluctuations in the power grid, triggering the blackout, is being investigated.
Next steps
The Spanish government has convened a new National Security Council to assess the situation and take possible additional measures. The causes of the blackout are expected to be clarified in the coming days, and measures to strengthen the resilience of the national electricity system are expected to be implemented.
For more details, you can watch Pedro Sánchez's full appearance in the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/live/4W4lxQtTXtM?si=lshLlyz52DseIkBz
