Blackout in Spain and Portugal: why did the lights go out?

On Monday, the unthinkable happened: Spain and Portugal experienced an electricity blackout.

Just after midday the lights went out, wifi went down, trains stopped, airports closed, ATMs froze and everyday life for millions of citizens ground to a halt.

Both countries quickly ruled out the possibility that the outage was caused by a cyberattack. Human error was also discounted. Critics of Spain’s ambitious green energy policy were quick to lay the blame on renewables.

Nuclear power proponents suggested the outage was the inevitable result of moving away from nuclear.

Power started to be restored on Monday evening, and by Tuesday morning the Spanish government reported that more than 90 per cent of supply had returned, with a similar percentage restored in Portugal.

The costs are now being counted; the CEOE employers’ association estimating the economic cost at about €1.6 billion. Self-employed workers may have lost as much as €1.3 billion, according to the ATA workers’ association.

But what caused the blackout? And how is it possible that days later the authorities still don’t know for sure?

Contributor to The Irish Times Guy Hedgecoe was on a train in Madrid when the blackout began. He tells In the News what happened next and explores the reasons and reactions to the unprecedented outage that has shaken confidence in the energy supply.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.

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