An enormous energy outage which introduced a lot of Spain and Portugal to a standstill earlier this 12 months is the primary recognized blackout brought on by extreme voltage, a report has discovered.
The blackout on 28 April stranded hundreds of practice passengers and left hundreds of thousands of individuals with out cellphone and web protection and entry to money from ATMs throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
Big swathes of Spain and Portugal, together with main cities like Barcelona, Lisbon, Madrid, Porto and Seville, had been affected by the ability outage – Europe’s most vital blackout in additional than 20 years.
Like earlier probes, the report by the European community of electrical energy transmission system operators pointed to a surge in voltage because the rapid explanation for the outage.
A last report, due within the first quarter of 2026, will examine the basis causes and steps taken to regulate voltage within the system.
Damian Cortinas, chair of ENTSO-E’s board, mentioned there was no indication {that a} cyber assault had occurred.
Mr Cortinas additionally mentioned that Spain’s growing dependence on renewable power and its restricted energy interconnections with different international locations had not contributed to the outage.
“If there had been double the interconnection capacity, this would not have stopped the blackout, and this would not have accelerated the recovery,” Mr Cortinas mentioned.
After the blackout, the Spanish and Portuguese governments have urged the EU to assist them develop new energy hyperlinks with different international locations, which they are saying would assist their energy grids reply to disruptions.
Its report follows a number of others by the Spanish authorities and energy and grid firms. The nationwide power watchdog and Spanish politicians are additionally conducting separate probes.
Redeia, proprietor of grid operator REE, has blamed the blackout on some energy vegetation’ failure to assist preserve applicable voltage whereas Spanish utilities blamed the Spanish grid operator’s poor planning.
