Iberian blackout: An unprecedented crisis reveals vulnerabilities
A power outage paralysed street traffic, grounded planes, and halted rail services, trapping many people in lifts and underground trains, and also rendered telephone contact impossible. Spain is calculating the losses from the blackout, and it is already clear that they will be substantial.
Continental Spain, along with parts of Portugal and France, experienced a significant power failure on Monday.
"The massive power outage on Monday, which left much of Spain without electricity and disrupted daily life, not only caused traffic jams, fear and confusion, but also poses economic losses which in the worst-case scenario could amount to a maximum of 4.5 billion euros", reports elpais.com.
The Spanish network operator Red Eléctrica announced on Tuesday morning that power supplies had been restored in almost 90 per cent of continental Spain.
Massive failure in Spain. Counting the losses
According to the operator, Monday's blackout across Spain was of a "unique and extraordinary" scale and was the most serious outage of its kind in the country's history. Its cause remains unknown.
"We suddenly lost, within five seconds, 15 GW, which is about 60 per cent of the system's power. We still do not know what caused it," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at a press conference late Monday evening.
Experts noted in conversation with the "El País" newspaper that the maximum potential impact of the outage could be equivalent to the GDP generated by the Spanish economy on a typical day.
Response from the European Commission
The European Commission remains in contact with the authorities of Spain and Portugal, as well as the European operators responsible for electricity transmission (ENTSO-E), to understand the cause of the power failure in these countries and its consequences, reported the EC spokesperson.
The Commission also announced that it will continue to monitor the situation and ensure the efficient exchange of information between all parties involved.
EC spokesperson Paula Pinho also assured that - in accordance with EU regulations, such as the emergency code and the network restoration code - there are protocols aimed at restoring the system's functioning.
