A major power outage hit Spain and Portugal on Monday afternoon, abruptly shutting down daily activities, halting trains and subways, cutting off traffic lights, closing stores and canceling or delaying some flights.
Hours after the power shut off around 12:30 p.m. Central European time, stranding tens of millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula, officials remained at a loss as to the cause, though several denied any foul play.
“At this point, there are no indications of any cyberattack,” António Costa, the president of the European Council, wrote on X after communicating with the leaders of Spain and Portugal, who both assembled emergency meetings. “Grid operators in both countries are working on finding the cause and on restoring the electricity supply.”
By Monday evening, with the help of electricity funneled from Morocco and France, parts of northern and southern Spain had flickered back to life and Spain’s national power company, Red Eléctrica, said power was being progressively restored across the country. Later Monday night, the president, Pedro Sánchez, said, “Practically 50 percent of the electricity supply has been restored.”
In Portugal, the electricity and gas supplier, REN, announced power had been reconnected to two important substations near Lisbon and that residents in Greater Porto should be back online shortly.
The outage briefly affected France. RTE, the French electrical grid operator, said in a statement that some households in the Basque region had lost electricity but that “all power has since been restored.”
Still, others remained in the dark.
The reaction across the region ranged from frantic stockpiling to confused bewilderment to calmly hunkering down and making do with old-fashioned electricity-free ways of living.
There were widespread problems connecting to the internet and to phone networks across Spain and Portugal. The lack of access to information was bewildering to many
“Not knowing what’s going on is the worst part,” said Lucia Prisco, 57. The last two five-liter water bottles were snapped up at a store in Lisbon, Portugal’s capital, where he worked. “It’s the first time we’ve experienced something like this.”
Soon after the electricity was cut, long lines started to form outside ATMs. Traffic lights and electric road signs stopped working, the Spanish traffic authority noted on X, asking residents to “avoid driving as much as possible” — though many could not get access to the message.
Shortly after the blackout, footage in the Spanish news media showed scenes of chaos in Madrid. With no traffic lights working, vehicles blocked the city’s wide, leafy avenues, and the traffic police improvised, doing their best to keep things moving. By late afternoon, commuters had ditched their vehicles, choosing instead to walk.
Streets and squares were filled with people on foot. The Spanish news media was awash with anecdotes: Train passengers, stranded for hours in the middle of nowhere, had climbed down from their carriages and were sitting beside the tracks, in the sunshine, waiting to be rescued.
In the Spanish city of Valencia, emergency services had been rescuing people from elevators all day. By 9 p.m., the Valencia City Council announced on social media that everyone who had been trapped in elevators had been freed.
But the blackout sent major institutions into crisis-management mode. Hospitals in Spain had to run on generators. Portuguese banks and schools shut their doors, and Portugal’s Council of Ministers declared an energy crisis in order, it said on social media, “to ensure priority in restoring electricity to essential services such as hospitals and telecommunications.” The Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, the ATP Tour said.
The Prado Museum was packed when the lights went down across continental Spain. At the time, a Spanish television crew was recording a show inside the building. Its cameras captured the ensuing confusion, showing bewildered tourists and schoolchildren being ushered out of the building by museum staff, who were concerned for the safety of some of the nation’s treasures, including works of art by Francisco Goya and Diego Velázquez.
Train travel was disrupted throughout Spain. Renfe, Spain’s national rail company, wrote in a post on X that trains had stopped operating at all stations. Subways in several cities, including Valencia and Madrid, were also halted
Later, the country’s transportation minister, Oscar Puente, said on X that railways would remain closed all day.
Joe Meert, a geology professor at the University of Florida, was celebrating his 30th anniversary with his wife, Michelle. But the train they were on stopped suddenly on the tracks in a rural area somewhere between Madrid and Valencia, he said in a phone interview.
After three hours, he said, the dining cart was down to just beer and a few soft drinks.
“We are out of water,” Mr. Meert, 67, said, as he watched some riders step down off the train and walk toward a tractor where a farmer was delivering water. The train staff was walking from car to car delivering news, since the loudspeaker no longer worked, he said.
“The last thing we heard was there was no news,” Mr. Meert said.
On Monday night, Mr. Sánchez, the president, said 35,000 passengers had been trapped on about 100 trains. But later, people on only 11 trains, in more inaccessible places, still needed to be rescued, he said. Mr. Sánchez said in his news conference that normal service would be restored by Tuesday, adding, however, that “a long night lies ahead of us.”
Earlier on Monday, he had said that about 20 percent of Spain’s air traffic had been grounded. Some flights were delayed, too, Aena, which manages many Spanish airports, wrote on X.
Millions of people across the region tried to deal with the disruptions while they still had daylight to spare.
In Lisbon, people raced to grocery stores to fill up on water and dried goods. Many were out of luck: Some major grocery stores were closed by afternoon. Smaller groceries struggled to refill shelves that were quickly emptying. At some counters, clerks were tallying bills by hand using paper and pen, since payment systems were not functioning.
“It’s like when I was younger, 50 years ago,” said Francisco Garcia, 61, a boat restorer living in the old part of Lisbon. He added, “It’s a reminder of how dependent we are on things outside of our own control.”
For the first 30 minutes, Mr. Garcia was able to get access to news updates on his phone. Then, the news sites crashed, he said. “We are in a total blackout,” he said.
Since bank card readers weren’t working, payment was only in cash — when people had it. At his neighborhood grocery store, Rajan Basnet let grateful shoppers picking over his emptying shelves leave with the supplies they needed, even if they couldn’t pay.
“It might be me that needs something tomorrow,” said Mr. Basnet, who moved to Portugal four years ago from Nepal.
By 3 p.m., the water was gone, and most of the fresh vegetables were picked over, though he still had tinned fish and rows of crackers and cookies.
Because of the power cut, the courts in Murcia, in southeastern Spain, were closed, children’s activities and cultural events canceled. Police officers were stationed at major intersections to direct traffic.
“We’re making sure the civil guard is ready for the night, because nothing works,” said Maria Contreras, a spokeswoman for the city, from a dark hallway in City Hall. “No one’s security cameras are working; nothing is working. The traffic lights, nothing. And we’re waiting to see when it comes back.”
Despite the confusion, many seemed to adapt to the disruption. In Murcia, some picnicked in a park. Restaurant terraces were full. And while the midday sunlight still shone brightly, indoor flamenco classes continued, as people practiced in the light streaming in from the windows.
In downtown Lisbon, the sound emanating from Barberia Oliveira was much softer than the usual buzz of clippers. Barbers were calmly cutting hair with scissors. They wondered aloud whether the blackout was a problem of infrastructure, natural disaster or international meddling.
“The Portuguese are pretty relaxed about most things,” said Diogo Cardozo, one of the barbers. “It takes us a while before we start to freak out.”
Besides, he added with a laugh: “Things don’t always work that well in Portugal anyway. If this was Belgium, it might be different.”
Another barber, Nuno Alves, said the bigger concern was what would happen after the blackout ended.
“We can handle the blackout,” he said. “But the worst thing would be if they don’t fully explain what happened.”
Ephrat Livni, Tiago Carrasco and Nazaneen Ghaffar contributed reporting.
