A blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill Monday, halting subway trains, cutting phone service, and shutting down traffic lights and ATM machines for the 50 million people who live across the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica said restoring power to large parts of the country and neighboring Portugal will take hours, reports the AP. The company declined to speculate on the causes of the huge blackout. The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Center issued a statement saying there was no sign the outage was due to a cyberattack. Eduardo Prieto, head of operations at Red Eléctrica, told journalists it was unprecedented, calling the event "exceptional and extraordinary."
The outage hit across Spain and Portugal, including their capitals, Madrid and Lisbon. Offices closed and traffic was snarled as traffic lights stopped working. It was not possible to make calls on some mobile phone networks, though some apps were working. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez convened an emergency meeting of Spain's National Security Council and visited Red Eléctrica to follow efforts at restoring grid operations. The Portuguese Cabinet convened an emergency meeting at the prime minister's residence.
Portugal's government said the outage appeared to stem from problems outside the country. "It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It's still being ascertained," Cabinet Minister Leitão Amaro said. Portuguese distributor E-Redes blamed "a problem with the European electricity system." The company said it was compelled to cut power in specific areas to stabilize the network. Spain's public broadcaster RTVE said a major power outage hit several regions of the country just after midday local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain's parliament in Madrid, and subway stations in the dark. Spanish airports were operating on backup electrical systems and some flights were delayed. Train services in both countries ground to a halt.
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