Electricity was restored to almost all of Spain and Portugal on Tuesday morning after massive power cutting on the entire Iberian Peninsula, but the cause of the obscurement remained a secret.
The widespread failure lasted about eight hours – in some regions longer – and closed the metro networks, ATMs and light, while disturbing flights and mobile communication on Monday.
On Tuesday to 7 am local time on Tuesday, more than 99 percent of the energy demand in Spain was restored, said the electricity operator in the Red Electricla country. The Portuguese Operator of the Ren said that all power substations have returned to the internet.
When life began to return to normal – along with the opening of schools and offices, facilitating movement and restarting public transport – the authorities in Spain did not yet provide further explanations of what caused that one of the most serious darkness took place in Europe.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the priorities of his government were double: restoring the electrical system of the country and finding the reasons for the blackout so that a similar event “never takes place”.
“We analyze all potential causes without rejecting any hypothesis,” said Sanchez.
Such a common electrical failure has a slight precedent on the Iberian peninsula or in Europe.
On Monday, people were left in front of Madrid railway stations, when the extensive current failures were growled by public transport, delayed flights and caused widespread traffic jams.
Eduardo Prieto, director of system operations service in Spain of the electricity operator, noticed two steep “disconnecting events” before Monday's blackout. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, he said that more investigations were needed to understand why they took place.
Red Electrica, in a statement on Monday evening, pointed to “strong oscillating in the flow of power”, which caused “a very significant loss of generation.”
The source with direct knowledge about the sector said that during the failure the Spanish mesh worked with a very small “inertia”, which is energy moving in a large, rotating mass like a generator or in some industrial engines.
The inertia helps stabilize the mesh, slowing down the speed of change in frequency when there is a sudden decline or increase in demand or generation.
“Under these conditions (when there is low inertia), if for any reason there is a decrease in production, the net loses (more) inertia and everything fails. And in the darkening you must rebuild the inertia before restoring online information, which takes a few hours,” the source said, asking for anonymity.
No unusual weather event or cyber lamp
The Spanish meteorological agency, Aemet, said that on Monday it did not detect any “unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena” and no sudden temperature fluctuations were noted at their weather stations.
On Monday, the National Center for Cyber security of Portugal rejected speculation about the game's foul, saying that there is no sign that the failure resulted from cyber attack.
The President of the European Council Antonio Costa also said that “there are no tips on any cyber attack.” Teresa Ribera, vice president of the European Commission, ruled out sabotage, but emphasized that the failure “is one of the most serious episodes registered in Europe recently”.
While Red Electricla also ruled out cyber attack, the Spanish Supreme Court stated that it would open an investigation to determine whether “Computer sabotage act” could have been committed “against the critical Spanish infrastructure”.
“Electrical instability” affects the Barcelona metro
Power was restored in the Caja Mágica tennis complex, and Madrid Open was resumed on Tuesday with a packed schedule, after the day on which 22 matches had to be postponed.
At the largest Spanish railway stations, crowds of travelers waited on Tuesday morning on board trains or re -booking tickets for travel, which were canceled or disturbed.
Hundreds of people stood near the screens at the Atoch station in Madrid, waiting for updates. Many spent the night at the station, wrapped in blankets provided by the Red Cross. Similar scenes took place at the Sants Barcelona station.
Until 11:00 local time, on Tuesday, service in the Madrid metro system was fully restored. In Barcelona, the system worked normally, but suburban trains were suspended due to “electrical instability”, which runs the service, Rodaleries Catalunya, she said on X.
Rescuers in Spain said that on Monday they saved about 35,000 passengers along the railways and underground, and the obscurement of twisting sports centers, railway stations and airports with makeshift shelters day by day.
Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away, the distant areas of Greenland were cut off from key satellite access due to a power output on the Iberian Peninsula – but Tusass, the Greenland telecommunications company, said on Tuesday that the service was restored from day to day.
Tusass said on Monday that he lost a connection with satellite equipment based in Spain, which provides telephone, internet, television and radio services.