OVIEDO, Spain
The electricity went out across Portugal, Spain and Andorra around midday Monday, with the causes still unknown.
Spanish daily El Pais reports significant disruptions to travel, with airports, trains, metros and traffic lights affected by the blackout. Spain’s railway company confirmed all trains have stopped running. Businesses have also been severely disrupted, with Anadolu confirming that at least some oil refineries have also shut down.
Hospitals are running as usual, according to El Pais, as they have electricity generators.
Authorities are investigating the causes of the outage. Spain’s National Institute for Cybersecurity is also studying whether a cyberattack could be respsonsible.
The Spanish government called an emergency meeting at to Spain’s national energy provider Red Electrica. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and several ministers will attend.
The Madrid government also activated an emergency meeting to coordinate actions to deal with the blackout.
Shortly after the lights went out, Red Electrica said it was working to re-establish connection.
But more than nearly one hours and a half after the power went down, the lights remain off in large swathes of Spain.
Red Electrica said at around 2pm local time that electricity was re-established in the Basque Country after 1 hour and 15 minutes of blackout.
Communication is difficult, with telephone services patchy and 5G networks working intermittently.
Spanish daily La Vanguardia reports that Spain’s islands, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands have not been affected. According to EGFE news agency, power is being restored in the three Basque capitals.
Local French media say some areas have also been affected.
