Traffic was gridlocked, flights grounded and trains suspended while people were trapped in elevators and left without water supplies. Whole cities were cut off with mobile networks, Wi-Fi, ATMs and card machines inoperative amid the disruption which began around 12.30pm on Monday.
In Portugal, a country of 10.6 million people, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country. Meanwhile, Spain’s capital, Madrid, as well as cities like Barcelona and Valencia, were also affected.
Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said the massive blackout had affected the Iberian peninsula and it was working with energy companies to restore power.
Follow on the live blog for regular updates as the power outage continues.
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez said the problem was triggered by a “strong oscillation” in the electricity grid, but the cause was still being determined. The Spanish leader asked the public to refrain from speculation and said no theory about the cause had been discarded.
It came as Portuguese grid operator REN suggested a “rare atmospheric phenomenon” caused by “extreme temperature” changes in Spain’s interior was behind the outage, adding that operations to restore energy distribution throughout Portugal were more complicated compared to Spain and it could take up to a week for supply to fully return to the country.
Red Electrica said it was aiming to restore power fully within six to 10 hours. Already, areas in the north and south of the peninsula have had power restored.
A resident in Torremolinos, Michael Basquill, said power has been restored although he told The Independent he feared it was only temporary.
“For us, the situation involved more than just a loss of electricity,” he said. “The outage also knocked out our mobile network, leaving us without any form of communication.
“Additionally, the water supply to our apartment was cut off – likely because the city’s pumping systems require electricity as well. It truly felt apocalyptic.
“For about six hours, we were completely isolated, unable even to make calls for information,” he said. “It was a total guessing game as to what was happening.”
Parts of Madrid’s underground were brought to a halt and traffic lights across the capital city stopped working. Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country and the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto.
Social media footage from Malaga, on Spain’s south coast, also showed metro passengers forced to walk inside the tunnel as carriages were evacuated.
The Madrid Open tennis tournament organisers suspended matches for the day as scoreboards and cameras were disabled around the clay courts.
Siobhan Baker, who was attending the tournament, said there was widespread confusion as the outage struck during British tennis player Jacob Fearnley’s match against Gregor Dimitrov.
“The TV screens went out, so they suspended play,” she said. “They couldn’t resume play because the camera was stuck over the court. It’s dangling over one side of the court, so they couldn’t resume play.
“We went out to grab a beer, assuming that it was just here and the electricity was going to be back on quite quickly.” They then found out the power cut was national.
People in neighbourhood WhatsApp chats in Barcelona and outskirts cities and towns also reported the outage.
The power cut also affected people flying to both Portugal and Spain, popular holiday destinations for this time of year.
Over 500 flights were due to operate from UK airports to the two countries on Monday, representing nearly 100,000 seats, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
At Lisbon, airline TAP Portugal cancelled dozens of flights in and out of the Portuguese capital. British Airways grounded at least one round trip from London Heathrow, while EasyJet had cancelled flights to and from Bristol. Madrid was also affected, with many cancellations for flights to and from Portugal.
