On Monday, April 28, 2025, a widespread power outage swept across Europe, plunging millions into darkness and disrupting daily life in Spain, Portugal, parts of France, and several other countries, including Andorra, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Finland, Germany, and Italy.
The blackout began around 11:40 AM Lisbon time (12:30 PM in Spain) and brought cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Seville to a standstill.
The outage halted subways, grounded flights, and knocked out traffic lights, phone lines, internet access, and ATMs.
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Spain’s grid operator, Red Eléctrica, reported a drop in electricity demand of 10 GW within seconds, describing it as an “unprecedented incident.”
Initial reports suggest this was caused by a fault in the European electricity grid, potentially triggered by a fire on Alaric Mountain in southwestern France that damaged a high-voltage line.
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The Portuguese operator E-Redes indicated that a voltage imbalance might also be responsible.
The scale of the outage was has impacted over 50 million people, rivaling the 2003 Italy-Switzerland blackout as the largest in Europe’s history.
In Madrid, the Open tennis tournament was interrupted as the scoreboards went dark. Hospitals had to switch to generators, and traffic gridlock paralyzed cities as drivers struggled to navigate without traffic signals.
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Authorities in Spain and Portugal rushed to respond, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez overseeing the recovery efforts.
The European Commission and ENTSO-E are currently investigating the root cause of the outage, which remains unclear.
Power restoration is underway, with northern and southern Spain seeing progress, but some areas may wait 6-10 hours for full service.