Millions across Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France experienced widespread power outages on Monday due to a “severe disruption” in Europe’s electrical grid, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.
Speaking Monday evening, Sánchez stated that the cause of the disruption remains unclear and that an emergency crisis meeting had been convened to address the situation urgently.
Red Eléctrica, the operator of Spain’s national electricity grid, announced that efforts were underway to restore power across mainland Spain and Portugal.
In a website update, the company said full restoration was expected within six to 10 hours, with supply already resuming in several northern, southern, and western areas of the Iberian Peninsula.
“We are committed to identifying the origin and cause of this incident and are using all available resources to resolve it,” Sánchez said during a press conference. He added that electricity had already returned to 10 regions across Spain.
Red Eléctrica also noted that emergency generators were being deployed as part of the recovery process. Authorities urged citizens to stay home and minimize travel while restoration efforts continued.
“Plans to restore electricity have been activated in cooperation with industry partners following the outage across the peninsula,” Red Eléctrica posted on X (formerly Twitter). “The causes are under investigation and all resources are focused on resolving the situation.”
Although Spanish airports remained open, major hubs such as Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport, Barcelona-El Prat Airport, and Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport reported extensive delays and cancellations, according to FlightAware. Lisbon’s airport was particularly hard-hit, recording the most disruptions worldwide.
The outages also affected events such as the Madrid Open tennis tournament, which canceled matches on Monday “to ensure the safety of players, fans, and staff,” organizers said.
