Spanish blackout triggers €1.6bn economic impact, cyberattack ruled out
The loss of 2.2 gigawatts of power at substations in Granada, Badajoz, and Seville led to the April blackout in Spain, Vice Prime Minister Sara Aagesen informed Parliament on Wednesday. She also ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the issues.
"No signs have been found (that the outage was caused by a cyberattack on the Red Eléctrica network operator – editor's note) and that's good news," declared Aagesen, who is the Minister for Ecological Transition. On 29 April, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated that his government does not rule out any causes of the outage, including a cyberattack.
On Wednesday, Aagesen reported that the widespread outage, which on 28 April caused power supply disruptions across Spain and also in neighbouring Portugal, started with the loss of 2.2 gigawatts of power in the south of the country – at substations in Granada, Badajoz, and Seville. These failures were said to have triggered a series of disconnections from the network. The power supply was restored the next day.
According to Reuters, Aagesen noted that several investigations are ongoing regarding the outage, and for the first time, Spanish authorities provided information on where the blackout began. She also admitted that determining its cause will take some time and may not give a definitive answer.
€1.6 billion in losses
At the end of April, the president of the Spanish employers' organisation CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, estimated that the power outage affecting the Iberian Peninsula will cost the economy around €1.6 billion, which accounts for 0.1 per cent of the gross domestic product.
Garamendi emphasised the scale of the problems caused by the outage. He indicated that refineries would need weeks to restore full capacity, and large blast furnaces might have suffered significant damage. "This is a huge impact on the economy," stated the head of the employers' organisation during a conversation with journalists.
