Violent power failure in Spain: chaos in large cities and far -reaching consequences

Violent power failure in Spain: chaos in large cities and far -reaching consequences

Madrid, Spanien - On April 28, 2025, there was a massive power failure in Spain that affected not only the entire country, but also parts of France and Portugal. The incident started around 12 noon and led to chaos and dramatic conditions in big cities such as Madrid and Barcelona. Residents reported people who were in the metro and were unable to contact their families. Long queues formed in front of ATMs because many people urgently wanted to withdraw cash.

School lessons were interrupted in many regions of Spain and students were sent home. In Lisbon, the subway set up its operation, while some areas of Spain, such as Malaga, were supplied with electricity after several hours. The Spanish road authority called on drivers not to go on the streets; The traffic was chaotic and confusing.

reactions and effects

The water supply in Lisbon could also be affected, which is why the responsible authority recommended that water be used consciously. The network operator E-Redes in Portugal made the cause of the problem in the Spanish high-voltage network. In Madrid, the Hospital Universitario La Paz activated a power savings plan and did not expose essential treatments to protect resources. There were also considerable delays at airports in Spain, and train traffic was stopped nationwide.

The Spanish government appointed the National Security Council to evaluate the situation. The EU Commission also intervened to examine the causes and to coordinate the restoration of the energy supply. The operator of the network operator Red Eléctrica estimated that the full restoration of the power supply could take between six and ten hours. The exact causes of the power failure initially remained unclear, but were associated with fluctuations in the current flows on the network, whereby a hacker attack was not excluded, such as A look at possible blackouts in Europe

The power failure in Spain and Portugal fueled fears of a possible larger European blackout. Researchers and experts warn that such nationwide power failures in Europe are rare, but can have a major impact on society and the economy. In the past, around 2003 there was a large -scale power failure in Italy, which lasted up to 24 hours. In 2006, too, Europe was without electricity for two hours, around 15 million people were affected.