2. Image source, Getty Images
3. As life begins to return to normal in Spain and Portugal, questions still remain about what caused yesterday’s widespread power outage.
4. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the government will consider all possible “hypotheses” in an update earlier today. The Portuguese government and Spain’s power grid have ruled out a cyber attack.
5. An investigative commission has been launched in Spain and a request has been made by the Portuguese government for an EU agency to perform an independent audit.
6. Our climate and science team have looked into some of the possibilities – with one suggestion being that the incident could have been linked to renewable energy.
7. Meanwhile, transport continues to be disrupted in the region after hundreds of flights departing Portuguese and Spanish airports were cancelled yesterday and today.
8. We’ve also been hearing your stories of the blackout – from the couple left stranded for more than 11 hours to the violinist enjoying beers with friends by candlelight.
9. We are ending our live coverage but you can continue to follow the latest developments across BBC News:
12. Image source, Getty Images
13. The mass power outage that occurred in Spain and Portugal on Monday left millions without electricity, causing disruption across transport networks, schools and hospitals.
14. Let’s take a look at some of the stories you shared with the BBC:

• Hua Fah and her partner described the power outage as a “complete mess” when they were left stranded for more than 11 hours after their train to Barcelona stopped around 200 miles from its destination
• Jonny Stokes from London described the scene in Seville as “a bit post-apocalyptic and pretty scary”, after traffic lights went out and police were everywhere
• Emily, a teacher in Lisbon, said she was “teaching in the dark” yesterday, and that many parents took their children out of school early
• Classical violinist Isaac Bifet was forced to abandon rehearsals in Madrid due to the power outage, and ended the day enjoying beers with friends by candlelight
• Will David, in Lisbon said the power cut happened while he was mid-haircut at the barbers. Luckily, the barber finished the cut with scissors instead of the electric razor and left him looking “halfway presentable”
• Jessica Lopez and Olvyn Lanza from Iowa were locked out of their Airbnb because the electric door didn’t work. The couple ended up spending four hours walking through the streets of Madrid trying to find somewhere to sleep

3. 
4. Get in touch with us to tell us what piece of equipment you wished you had to get you through the day?
5. Or maybe you were well-equipped for the power cut. What piece of equipment was the most helpful to you?
6. You can contact us via:
7. In some cases a selection of your comments and questions will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.
10. Image source, EPA
11. The European Commission will initiate a “thorough investigation” of the power outages in Spain and Portugal on Monday, the European Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jorgensen says in a post on X.
12. Describing the blackout as the “most severe for almost two decades in Europe”, Jorgensen says “we stand ready to support Spain and Portugal in all possible ways”.
15. Nick Beake
16. Reporting from Madrid
17. 
18. Many small business are counting the cost of the total power failure on Monday, which affected large swathes of Spain and Portugal.
19. At a city centre market – Mercado de la Cebada – fishmonger Paco Soto told us how they sold as much as they could after the electricity went out and their ice started to melt.
20. Paco grins as he describes enjoying the rest of the fish, which he – and others – washed down with beers.
21. However, not everyone was so fortunate. A few stalls down, at an ice cream shop, Christian Rosa estimates he lost €500 worth of produce.
22. “Yesterday was terrible” he tells us. “I’m hoping today is a better day.”
25. Image source, EPA
26. We can also bring you earlier comments from the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on the efforts his government is making to understand the causes of the power outage.
27. Sánchez said an investigative commission has been set up in Spain to look into the widespread power cut yesterday.
28. “All the necessary measures will be taken to ensure that this does not happen again,” Sánchez told a press conference.
29. The commission will be led by Spain’s Ministry of Ecological Transition, which will work with the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute, the National Cryptology Centre and the National Competition Market Commission.
30. It comes after the Spanish High Court earlier announced a separate investigation to establish whether the incident could have been caused by a cyberattack, which would be classed as a crime of terrorism.
33. Image source, EPA
34. Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said his government has requested the EU’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators to perform an independent audit of the power outage that hit the Iberian Peninsula yesterday.
35. “We want a full investigation of the outage’s causes,” he told a news briefing. “We need quick, urgent answers.”
36. Portugal’s government earlier ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the power cut, saying there seemed to have been an “issue in the power transmission network” in Spain.
37. This came after Spain’s power company reached the same conclusion.
40. Image source, Getty Images
41. Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente says Madrid’s rail and metro service has returned to normal “with 100% of traffic operating”.
42. Earlier, we reported that Barcelona’s metro system as well as Valencia and Bilbao’s underground were back to normal,
43. Trains remain suspended in the Galicia and Extremadura regions; while services serving the Basque Country, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville and Asturias areas are running but with some delays.
44. Elsewhere, Spanish airport operator Aena – which manages 46 airports and two heliports in Spain – says all of its airports “are operational and have been throughout the night and throughout yesterday, thanks to the contingency electrical systems”.
47. Cameron Murdoch
48. Reporting from Zaragoza
49. Image source, Cameron Murdoch
50. Hua Fah, 32, and her partner Yong-Wei Ma, 32, were left stranded for more than 11 hours after their train to Barcelona stopped around 200 miles from its destination due to the power outage.
51. Passengers had no food, electricity or air conditioning while they were trapped on the train. Those who wanted to continue to Barcelona had to decide between sleeping in Zaragoza station or searching for last-minute accommodation.
52. The couple decided to split €560 (£477) on an Uber with two others so they could catch their flight to Canada at Barcelona airport.
53. They made their flight but admitted the experience was a “complete mess” that left them “exhausted”.
54. “Spain was a beautiful country but dangerous,” Yong-Wei said. “I am sad to not see the Sagrada Familia. We were meant to see it yesterday evening. But, it’s time to say goodbye.”
57. Simon Browning
58. Transport producer
59. Image source, Getty Images
60. A total of 185 flights departing Portuguese airports were cancelled yesterday due to the power cuts and 187 arrivals cancelled.
61. Today, Lisbon airport’s website is currently showing most flights departing as scheduled, with just a handful of cancellations.
62. Aviation data company Cirium also notes that 205 flights departing Spanish airports were cancelled and 208 arrivals cancelled. The worst affected being Seville with 33% departures cancelled; while Almeria had 18% departures cancelled.
63. Eurocontrol manages air traffic across Europe and it tells me around 36 aircraft were diverted to alternative airports yesterday and there were around 700 fewer movements in Spain-Portugal compared to a few weeks ago.
64. One aviation industry source tells me UK-based airlines operating to and from Spain and Portugal do not face an overwhelming task to bring people, who were caught up in yesterday’s disruption, home – even if they have to wait one extra day to get back.
65. The impact of the outage was not as great as it could have been, they add, as yesterday’s incident happened midweek and airlines are in a quiet period after Easter – so they have capacity. It would have been more problematic if this happened at the weekend.
66. EasyJet says it plans to operate a normal schedule today and Jet2 had no cancellations yesterday and today.
69. James Kelly
70. UGC Hub
71. 
72. Jonny Stokes from London spent the night on the floor of Seville airport after his flight was cancelled.
73. Jonny, 31, had been enjoying a weekend away with friends but it turned “scary” and “post-apocalyptic” when the major power outage struck across Spain.
74. “The first we knew about the outage was when we were buying beers but our payment wasn’t going through – so they gave it to us for free,” Jonny says.
75. “All the traffic lights went out, there was traffic chaos and crashes, and police everywhere. It was a bit post-apocalyptic and pretty scary,” he adds.
76. Jonny and his friends were able to get a bus to the airport after a German family lent them money, because they had no cash.
77. “The pilot tried to get our flight off yesterday but all of air traffic control was affected so we ended up sleeping on the floor of the airport,” he says.
80. Portugal’s government has ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the power cut that hit the country and Spain yesterday.
81. This comes after Spain’s power company reached the same conclusion earlier.
82. Government spokesman Antonio Leitao Amaro tells CNN Portugal: “We have no information related to a cyberattack or a hostile act at this stage.”
83. He added that “there would seem to have been an issue in the power transmission network” in Spain.
84. Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said yesterday there was “no indication” that a cyberattack was behind the power cut.
87. James Kelly
88. BBC News
89. Rebecca Berry, 22, from Hampshire, is stuck in the Canary Islands after her flight yesterday was cancelled, despite reassurances it would not be affected by the power cut in Spain and Portugal.
90. This was her first holiday abroad – a trip to Tenerife to celebrate a friend’s birthday – but the five-night trip has already become a six-night stay.
91. Rebecca says her original flight was due to fly out at 18:50 local time yesterday, with passengers boarded onto the plane on time.
92. “We waited 30 minutes for an update, and they told us we were now delayed by an hour as our time slot had moved for some reason,” she says.
93. “At that point, they handed out a small packet of biscuits and a cup of water to everyone.”
94. But passengers were then told the ground crew had missed the flight’s slot, so it couldn’t taxi to the runway.
95. Despite reassurances it would take off, passengers “started getting angry and hungry” after three hours on the plane, she says.
96. “We were told they cannot give us food as they are not in the air. Newborn babies did not have enough formula,” she adds.
97. “After nearly six hours, we were told the flight is cancelled due to the airspace being closed, not enough fuel to go over Africa, and the crew being over on their flight hours so we could not go an alternative route.”
98. Finally making it to a hotel room organised by the airline at 02:30 local time, Rebecca says she was unable to find out when her flight would be rescheduled.
99. She says the group was meant to be picked up at 11:30 today to go to the airport – and are “hoping for the best now”.
100. Image source, HANDOUT
103. Rich Preston
104. Reporting from Faro
105. 
106. Image caption,
107. Many may be relieved to see this charging tree outside the terminal building – it’s solar-powered, rather than relying on mains power
108. Outside Portugal’s Faro airport, streams of British holidaymakers are emerging from the airport.
109. Many of them had been concerned that their flights or holiday plans would be scuppered – but instead, flights seem to be running on time and the airport is working normally.
110. But in a very British way – and in a twist of irony – the biggest gripe amongst tourists arriving here today is that it’s cloudy.
113. Image source, EPA
114. Image caption,
115. Passengers at Sants train station in Barcelona have been waiting for updates on their travel plans following delays and cancellations

• It’s still unclear what caused yesterday’s massive power cut that left millions in Spain and Portugal without electricity for several hours
• Power has been restored in both countries, but transport is still in chaos, with flights and trains reporting delays
• Spain’s power company REE has ruled out a cyber-attack – echoing comments from other officials yesterday – although the Spanish government is considering all possible “hypotheses”
• Meanwhile, Spain’s High Court has said it would open an investigation to determine whether a cyber-attack is a possibility
• The Spanish power company Red Electrica said there were two consecutive “disconnection events” yesterday – the system dealt with the first, but couldn’t cope with the second. It said there’s nothing to suggest human error
• Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said what happened “cannot happen again”, adding that his government would hold private firms to account – you can read a recap of his statement
• A woman died during the blackout in a fire at her flat in Madrid – police believe it may have been caused by a candle

3. Image source, Getty Images
4. Madrid’s minister for housing, transport and infrastructure says the entire Metro network is now back up and running.
5. As we reported earlier, most of the network reopened in time for the morning rush hour.
6. Jorge Rodrigo Dominguez has confirmed the last section, Line 7A from the north of the city out to the east, is “operating normally”.
7. “This has been achieved thanks to the work of the underground professionals, who have made every effort to restore vital infrastructure for the people of Madrid as quickly as possible,” Dominguez says.
8. “My sincere thanks for rising to the occasion, once again, in an exceptional and unprecedented situation.”
11. Spain’s High Court says it will open an investigation into yesterday’s power cut to find out whether it could have been caused by a cyberattack.
12. Judge José Luis Calama says in a court document that such an attack, which would be classed as a crime of terrorism, is one of the possible causes being considered.
13. This comes after Spain’s power company REE ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the blackout.
14. Earlier, the Spanish prime minister said the government is still considering all possible “hypotheses”.
17. Image source, EPA
18. As promised, here are the main points from the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who spoke earlier at Moncloa Palace in Madrid:

• Sánchez said it’s clear the Spanish electrical system failed at 12:33, and the government will be investigating what happened “in those five seconds”
• The Spanish power firm REE has ruled out a cyber attack, but the government is still considering all possible “hypotheses”
• “There was no problem of excess renewables,” Sánchez says
• “What happened cannot happen again,” Sánchez told reporters, saying the government wants to ensure accountability
• Spain was able to restore electricity thanks to connections with France and Morocco

3. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s news conference has now finished.
4. We’ll bring you a summary of the key points he made soon.
7. Earlier in his statement, Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez says more than 35,000 rail passengers were affected by train cancellations yesterday, while several parts of the country are still without service today.
8. Despite this, airports, ports and roads are now operating as usual, he says, adding that mobile telephone and fibre optics are working in 90% of the country.
9. Sánchez also says the government has decided to release three days’ worth of strategic reserves of petroleum products that may be needed.

Page 2

2. Image source, EPA
3. After his statement, Sánchez takes questions from the press in the room.
4. One reporter asks the Spanish prime minister about cyber attacks being ruled out.
5. Sánchez replies, saying the government has “not had any conclusive information to suggest” this outage was caused by a terrorist attack.
8. Spain’s PM praises help from electricity supplies from France and Morocco.
9. “We also have questions ourselves,” he adds.
10. Sánchez says the results of government investigations will be used to strengthen Spain’s electric system, so that what happened on Monday “cannot ever happen again”.
11. Sánchez insists the government will “demand responsibility from private operators”.
12. In his view, Sánchez adds there was not a problem with renewable energy access during the outage.
13. He also says there is a lot of misinformation circulating at the moment and urges people to be cautious.
16. Image source, Reuters
17. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is speaking now.
18. You can click Watch live to see what he says.
19. We’ll also bring you his key points in text very soon.
22. Image source, EPA
23. Some more comments from Spanish power company Red Eléctrica’s (REE) news conference earlier.
24. As reported earlier, Eduardo Prieto, head of operation services, has explained that on Monday there were two consecutive “disconnection events”.
25. Systems managed to recover from the first event, but Prieto said they couldn’t recover from the second, which led to the power outage in Spain and Portugal.
26. When asked, Prieto admitted it is “very possible” that the affected generation was solar, though he said authorities don’t yet have enough information to be sure.
27. Finally, he said REE restored power to the grid by using hydro and combined-cycle gas, which operate through a combined gas and steam turbine method.
30. Guy Hedgecoe
31. Reporting from Madrid
32. Let’s bring you more from the recent news conference held by Spain’s power company REE.
33. The company has said they’ve ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the blackout.
34. Eduardo Prieto, head of operation services, has said that there were two “disconnection events”, barely a second apart, just before the blackout on Monday.
35. He said the incidents took place in the south-west of Spain, where there is substantial solar generation.
36. He added that “nothing leads us to believe that it could have been human error”.
39. Nick Beake
40. Reporting from Madrid
41. 
42. We’ve just met a couple from the US who spent four hours walking through the streets of Madrid last night, trying to find somewhere to sleep.
43. Jessica Lopez and Olvyn Lanza from Iowa said the electric door for the Airbnb they’d booked didn’t work, so they were stranded.
44. The couple are massive football fans, with Jessica supporting Madrid and Olvyn rooting for Barcelona.
45. They’re now trying to resume their journey around Spain and enjoy the last 10 days of their European holiday.
46. Jessica says they’ve taken the disruption in their stride, but the most worrying moment was when they couldn’t get hold of their children back home for much of yesterday.
47. They feared their children may have read incorrect speculation online about what was unfolding and may have feared the worst.
50. Thomas Mackintosh
51. Live reporter
52. I’ve been speaking with Álvaro Peinado, who says his mother and aunts were on one of the 11 trains the transport minister said were stranded until the early hours.
53. They were travelling on the 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) Renfe train from Alicante, which usually takes about two and a half hours.
54. But just 40 minutes from Madrid Atocha, their train stopped at 12:33 when the power cut hit.
55. “At first, we were able to contact them,” Álvaro, 24, tells me. “From what they told me, there were episodes of tension, extreme nervousness, and anxiety.
56. “We lost contact with them after 14:00. The next thing we knew was at 23:00.
57. “They were among the 11 trains the government hadn’t been able to rescue. They had tried to put them on another locomotive to take them to Cuenca with another train, but it wasn’t possible.”
58. Álvaro says more than 300 people were on the train, which finally reached Atocha at 02:00.
61. Spain’s power company REE has ruled out cyberattack as the cause of the nationwide power outage.
62. This matches what Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said yesterday – that there’s no sign a cyberattack was behind the power cut.
63. We’ll bring you more from the news conference as soon as we have it.
66. Play at the Madrid Open is set to go ahead as planned today, after the tennis tournament was suspended due to a power outage yesterday.
67. Organisers said both day and night sessions were cancelled on Monday “in order to guarantee general safety”, with fans seen leaving the Caja Mágica stadium in the dark.
68. In a post this morning, Mutua Madrid Open says power has been restored to the stadium, and doors have opened at 11:00 local time (10:00 BST).
69. They added that the event would start at 12:00 local time, as scheduled.
70. Image source, Reuters
71. Image caption,
72. Fans were seen leaving the Caja Mágica in Manzanares Park in the dark on Monday
75. Guy Hedgecoe
76. Reporting from Madrid
77. Image source, EPA
78. Image caption,
79. Spain’s King Felipe VI (R) shaking hands with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (L) shortly before the emergency meeting of the Spanish National Security Council
80. Felipe of Spain has finished chairing the national security meeting to find out why Spain and Portugal had major power cuts on Monday.
81. A cabinet meeting is now under way. We’ll bring you more updates as we get them.
84. A woman has died during a blackout in a fire at her flat in the Carabanchel area of southern Madrid.
85. According to El Pais, the National Police’s initial hypotheses suggest a candle may have started the fire.
86. Emergency service agency SAMUR confirmes the death of a middle-aged woman, and says 13 others are treated, with five taken to hospital.
87. Elsewhere in Madrid, emergency services says firefighters rescued more than 200 people, most of them trapped in lifts after the power cut.
90. Europe correspondent Nick Beake is at Atocha station in Madrid, where queues are building as services start up again this morning.
91. Many commuters with tickets for travel yesterday ended up sleeping on the station floor overnight, after they couldn’t book local hotels.
94. If you missed what happened yesterday – maybe because of the power cut itself – here’s a quick recap.
95. Power has now been restored in both countries, but transport is still in chaos, with trains and flights reporting delays.
96. We’ll keep bringing you the latest updates.
97. 
100. Image source, Reuters
101. Image caption,
102. Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski, pictured in the previous round against Borussia Dortmund
103. All metro services in Barcelona are running again and buses in the city are operating as normal, the local authority says.
104. It adds there are some “altered schedules” on three tram lines, but overall, public transport is getting back to normal.
105. Mayor Jaume Collboni says Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan will go ahead at the Olympic Stadium.
106. Also in the Montjuïc area, a 9,000-person festival known as the April Fair has been given the green light to reopen.
107. Image source, Getty Images
110. Esperanza Escribano
111. Reporting from Barcelona
112. People with tickets to travel from Barcelona train station yesterday spent the night there and are still unable to leave this morning, leading to growing frustration.
113. Ariani says she has been at the station since 20:00 last night with a 10-year-old girl and has “gotten no answers” about when they could start their journey to Madrid.
114. She says others with tickets for today are “being prioritised”.
115. “People with trains at 05:00 are showing up freshly showered, slept at home, and they go right ahead,” she said. “We all slept on the floor like dogs.”
116. Irene, also travelling to Madrid with her children aged 15 and 10, says they are meant to travel at 14:00 yesterday.
117. “There were no hotels – all the nearby ones were full. I couldn’t connect to book anything, and we didn’t dare leave because we thought service would resume early,” she says.
118. A man says some people are buying new tickets to travel today, but argues yesterday’s passengers “should be given priority”.
119. “Since 00:30, we’ve had no updates. Rail staff gave us half a litre of water to survive on and no information at all.”
120. Image source, Reuters
121. Image caption,
122. Trains from Barcelona Sants stopped after the power cut hit Spain
125. Eve Webster
126. BBC News
127. 
128. Iker Arroyo and Borja Gomez from Malaga are in good spirits, even after spending the night in a sports hall in Ciudad Real, a city about an hour from Madrid, along with around 600 others.
129. Maybe it helped that it was Borja’s birthday.
130. “We were stuck in the train for six hours and then the police came to hand out water and blankets. Then they took us to a sports hall and we slept there,” Iker says.
131. 
132. Image caption,
133. Local authorities provided blankets, sleeping mats, food and water for people who spent the night at Atocha station
135. 
136. Joe Tidy
137. Cyber correspondent
138. The simple answer is yes, it could be, as you can never really say “never” in cyber.
139. But it is far too early to say, and it is far more likely that some sort of accident or technical mistake has caused the outage.
140. If it is a cyber attack, it would be completely unprecedented in scale and impact.
141. Power grids have been taken offline in the past – two occasions that we know about.
142. Russian state-sponsored hackers from a notoriously powerful hacking unit known as Sandworm are accused of causing power cuts in Ukraine. Tens of thousands of homes were without power for hours in the cold winter of 2015.
143. The same hackers are accused of carrying out a successful repeat attack on the capital Kyiv a year later.
144. Both attacks shocked the cyber world at the time and were extremely sophisticated, likely involving months of work by the attackers.
145. But they were localised and fixed within hours.
146. If what is happening now was some sort of hack, it would be a massive escalation of what was thought possible.
149. As we’ve reported, Madrid’s Metro has mostly started running again and commuters are already packing onto platforms and into trains.
150. Here are some of the latest pictures from Spain during its busy morning.
151. Image source, EPA
152. Image source, Reuters
153. Image source, Reuters
156. In the last 30 minutes, Portugal’s government has confirmed that power supplies have been restored after Monday’s nationwide blackout.
157. Water supplies are now running across the whole of Portugal, and metro systems in Lisbon and Porto are operating, though some delays remain.
158. There’s still some recovery work happening at Lisbon’s main airport, but most flights there and at other major airports are operating.
159. Schools are set to reopen, and the health service is now fully stable, according to the government.
160. Image source, Getty Images
163. Alex Emery
164. BBC News
165. Alicia Hindhaugh from Northumberland is still on a train heading to Madrid after boarding on Monday morning for what was meant to be a three-hour journey.
166. “I’m still two hours away from Madrid,” she tells BBC News, adding that the train was moved to a small station overnight, “in the middle of nowhere”.
167. “There was a three-week-old baby on board but some local villagers took the family to stay with them overnight,” she says.
168. “I’m just hearing the announcement that a new crew is coming and then we will continue our journey, which has made me feel a bit better.
169. “It just felt disgusting overnight as it was so hot. I don’t speak the language and it was pitch black overnight so it did feel a bit scary.
170. “The sky was lovely though, so there was a positive!”

Page 3

2. Nick Beake
3. Europe Correspondent, reporting from Madrid
4. 
5. Here at Atocha train station in Madrid, many people endured a miserable night sleeping on the floor.
6. Many were angry and said they were hungry and thirsty.
7. There are now big queues on the concourse as passengers try to work out if their service is running.
8. Many trains are being moved to other platforms at short notice so it is a rather confusing scene.
9. Construction work has resumed here, causing a massive din that echoes through the station, adding to the chaotic atmosphere.
12. Portuguese energy operator Ren says it has restored power to all substations on the national transport network.
13. Ren says it worked with both international and national network operators, and adds that “the network is now perfectly stabilised”.
16. Guy Hedgecoe
17. Reporting from Madrid
18. Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
19. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has warned that people should be careful about misinformation regarding this whole crisis.
20. Inevitably, people are looking very closely at what might be the cause of all this.
21. Yesterday, the regional president of Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, suggested that a cyberattack was the likely cause. But that was then quickly dismissed by other officials close to the government.
22. There is going to be a lot of debate as to whether this has anything to do with a cyberattack or perhaps a weather phenomenon.
23. The government is saying wait, hold tight and wait for information, and in the coming days hopefully we will know what the cause of all this was.
26. Guy Hedgecoe
27. Reporting from Madrid
28. Image source, Reuters
29. Image caption,
30. Passengers board a metro train as services partially resume in Madrid
31. We do have power back. Things are returning to normal, although the government has said that it is going to be a process which could take a little bit longer.
32. For example, school classes will not take place in many areas of the country today.
33. The transport sector, which was heavily affected yesterday, is still going to be impacted.
34. There were a number of trains last night which were still stranded between stations in some rural areas – so there are still some challenges there.
35. But the feeling is things are slowly returning to normal.
38. Image source, Getty Images
39. Spain’s transport minister has given an update after widespread disruption led to trains being cancelled and even evacuated in some regions.
40. A number of train lines are cancelled until further notice, mainly affecting commuter trains in places like Bilbao, Cadiz, Seville, Zaragoza, Vigo and San Sebastian.
41. Commuter services in Madrid and Valencia are returning to normal but with “reduced services”.
42. For long-distance trains, services from Madrid to Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, Santander, Granada and the Basque Country are “progressively returning to normal”.
43. However, trains from Madrid to Huelva, Cadiz, Salamanca, Badajoz and Galicia remain cancelled until further notice.
44. If you missed it, the Madrid Metro has now fully reopened except for Line 7A, which connects the north of the city to the east via Atletico Madrid’s stadium.
45. As for flights, there are under 500 cancellations across Spain and Portugal.
48. In its latest update, Spanish power operator Red Electrica says “99.95% of demand restored”.
49. Work is still ongoing to get it back to 100%.
52. Image source, Getty Images
53. Flight cancellations are currently below 500 across Spain and Portugal, according to transport journalist Simon Calder.
54. He says the situation isn’t on the same scale as the recent Heathrow Airport power cut, which saw 1,400 flights cancelled.
55. Calder also tells BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast that many people who were due to fly from Spain and Portugal to the UK couldn’t get to the airport because of severe transport chaos on the ground.
56. He adds that while some airlines are allowing travellers to postpone their journeys, “other airlines not being necessarily so generous”.
57. “If you’re travelling today – you can hopefully expect things to go ahead ok. There are a few residual problems [airline delays] but you should get to where you’re going.”
60. Image source, Getty Images
61. Madrid Metro services across the whole network, except for Line 7A, have started at 08:00 local time (07:00 BST), according to the president of the Community of Madrid.
62. Isabel Díaz Ayuso also says that 80% of trains will “run during a normal morning rush hour”.
63. All public city buses and intercity train lines are running as normal and will be free all day, she adds.
64. “The region’s six transport interchanges remain open as usual.”
67. Red Electrica, Spain’s power operator, says that as of 06:00 local time (05:00 BST), 99.16% of power has been restored to mainland Spain.
68. “All substations on the transmission grid are operational. We continue with the restoration work,” the operator says.
71. Thomas Mackintosh
72. Live reporter
73. Image source, Getty Images
74. Good morning from London.
75. We’re taking over from our colleagues in Singapore, focusing on the fallout from yesterday’s massive power cut across Spain and Portugal.
76. If you’re just joining us, here are the main updates:

• Power has now been restored to around 90% of mainland Spain
• In Portugal, about 6.2 million out of 6.5 million households now have electricity again
• Spain’s King Felipe is set to chair a national security meeting later to find out what caused the power cut, local media reports
• A state of emergency is still in place across Spain, and regions including Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadura have asked the central government to take charge of public order

1. We’ll keep you updated throughout the day, so stay with us.
4. Image source, Reuters
5. Image caption,
6. Passengers stand inside a bus after the metro was closed during a power cut in Lisbon
7. Power has been restored overnight in parts of Lisbon, according to the government.
8. About 6.2 million out of 6.5 million households in Portugal now have electricity again, the national grid operator tells AFP news agency.
9. Energy operator Ren says it has managed to get power to “85 of the 89 substations and switching stations” and hopes to fix the remaining issues today.
12. While the majority of power has been recovered overnight, a state of emergency remains in place in Spain this morning as the recovery from the blackout continues.
13. The emergency status will be applied to regions that request it, officials say.
14. So far, Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadura have asked for the central government to take over public order and other functions.
15. Spain’s 17 regions have their own directly-elected authorities, which handle a number of issues local to their area.
16. But when big events happen which impact large swathes of the country, regions are able to get further help from the national government by requesting the intruduction of a state of emergency.
19. There were cheers as the power came back on in Madrid, hours after the Spanish capital was plunged into darkness.
20. Media caption,
21. People cheer as power turns back on in Madrid
24. While there is still widespread disruption, there has been major progress overnight in restoring power in Spain.
25. Red Eléctrica, the partly state-owned body which operates Spain’s national grid, reported at 04:00 in Spain (03:00 BST) that 87% of power had been restored.
28. Yang Tian
29. Live reporter
30. Image source, Getty Images
31. Image caption,
32. Dozens of people had to spend the night at Atocha train station in the capital, Madrid
33. Welcome back to our live coverage of the sweeping power outage that has left millions of people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France without electricity on Monday.
34. It’s still unclear why the outage occurred and how it spread so quickly, but Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro insisted there was “no indication” of a cyber-attack.
35. A European trade body told the BBC’s The World Tonight there was a “technical issue” with an energy connection between France and Spain.
36. Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates.
39. Image source, Reuters
40. It’s been several hours since the first reports emerged of power cuts in Spain and Portugal, causing widespread disruption and travel chaos.
41. As we approach midnight in Barcelona and 23:00 in Lisbon, here are the latest updates:

• Half of Spain’s power has been restored, according to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, after a state of emergency was declared in the country
• Authorities are still yet to establish why the outage occurred, Sanchez said, after Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro insisted there was “no indication” of a cyber attack
• A European trade body told the BBC’s The World Tonight there was a “technical issue” with an energy connection between France and Spain earlier
• Portugal’s power firm REN said earlier today it could take a week to normalise the country’s power network in full

1. We’ll be pausing our live coverage but you can stay across this story on the BBC’s website:
4. Gabriela Pomeroy
5. Live reporter
6. Image source, Isaac Bifet
7. Classical violinist Isaac Bifet went to a rehearsal this morning at the symphony orchestra in Madrid. But the building was all dark and most of the other orchestra players hadn’t turned up because they were stranded with no transport.
8. People without cash were particularly stuck, he says, because online payments systems went down.
9. “I had no cash,” Isaac says, “so I went to a café and the owner said: ‘Don’t worry you can pay me another time.'”
10. Isaac has had no mobile phone connection for most of the day. When he spoke to me, his connection had just come back but he is still not able to charge his phone. He went out and bought a transistor radio, because old-style radios were still working, he says.
11. “It was a very strange day,” Isaac says. “The atmosphere in the city was actually pretty nice” he says, “though a little medieval”.
12. Now he is at home, drinking beers with friends by candlelight.
15. Sergi Forcada Freixas
16. BBC News
17. Spain’s Interior Ministry has been reinforcing police patrols across the country by deploying 30,000 officers to maintain public order and prevent security incidents, particularly on roads where traffic signals are not working.
18. “Citizens can and should remain calm,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said during his latest address.
19. In many towns and cities, plain clothed officers are being used to prevent looting and protect businesses, many of which are unable to lower their electric shutters due to the power outage.
20. In Catalonia, the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan Police) will deploy more than 7,000 officers overnight to respond to emergencies and maintain public order.
23. We’re getting some new details now from Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
24. He says around half the country has now had their power restored – with the rest due to be restored by tomorrow.
25. As for any cause, Sanchez explains the authorities have not yet established why the outage occurred.
26. “Citizens can and should be calm,” he says. “We have a clear goal and is to get power fully restored by tomorrow.”
27. He adds that schools will remain open tomorrow but that in some cases there won’t be classes or exams.
28. “A long night lies ahead; we will continue working to restore normality as soon as possible,” he concludes.
31. The trade body that represents the power industry in Europe tells BBC’s The World Tonight a problem occurred with the energy connection between France and Spain earlier today.
32. Kristian Ruby, the general secretary of EURELECTRIC, also describes the outage as a “50 year, if not 100 year incident….something very very rare “
33. Ruby tells BBC’s World Tonight they are aware of a “specific incident with an interconnector between France and Spain”.
34. The general secretary says: “There was a specific technical issue that arose there and hence the Spanish grid was disconnected from the broader European grid earlier today.
35. “Now, judging from that situation alone, you wouldn’t think that would cause a power cut across the entire Iberian peninsula, so my assessment is there is likely to have been other elements in this equation that have caused this situation,” he adds.

Page 4

2. Image source, EPA
3. Image caption,
4. For some impacted areas, there’s little hope for any light as the power outage continues
5. Image source, EPA
6. Image caption,
7. A resident in Murcia plays with his pet inside his home lit with candles
8. Image source, EPA
9. Image caption,
10. Shops and businesses in Barcelona have also been affected by the power cut
11. Image source, EPA
12. Image caption,
13. More than 30% of Spain’s power demand has been restored, according to the country’s national operator
16. Gabriela Pomeroy
17. Live reporter
18. Image source, Getty Images
19. I’ve been speaking with Sarah Jovovich who describes the panic and confusion after the lights went off at Madrid’s metro station.
20. “I was just getting off the train when the lights went out,” she says. “People were confused and hysterical, it was quite chaotic really.”
21. Although she wasn’t personally afraid, Sarah says “some people were panicking”.
22. The mobile phones stopped working and nobody had any information, she says, adding: “People didn’t know what to do.”
23. After police told passengers to evacuate the station, Sarah found the streets gridlocked with heavy traffic.
24. “No one understood anything. Businesses were closed, buses were full and people got nervous quickly,” she says.
27. Transport Minister Oscar Puente says 11 trains are still stranded in Spain, hours after a power outage affected huge swathes of the country.
28. The minister says power has been restored to a control centre and there have been issues with the coupling of the locomotives and they are in difficult areas to access.
29. As of 22:00 local time (21:00 BST) Puente says 43.28% of the country’s energy demand has been recovered.
32. Bernadette McCague & James Kelly
33. BBC News
34. Image source, Gabriela Chavez.
35. Gabriela Chavez was travelling between Seville and Madrid via train when the power went out and the AC and toilets stopped working.
36. “They have let everyone off the train but we have no idea how long we will have to wait for,” she told the BBC earlier today.
37. “People at the top of the hill have flagged down cars who have dropped off water and crisps for us, which is kind [and] people from the village have come to drop off supplies for us.
38. “Someone has come from the local town with a big pot of pasta for everyone to eat. It’s actually very sweet to see everyone come together in a time of need.”
39. Jonathan Emery, 37, also told the BBC of his experience when his train was stopped. “For about an hour, [the train was] just not moving, the doors were closed.
40. “After about an hour they could at least open the doors which let a little bit of ventilation in. About half an hour after that people were let off the train.”
43. Red Electrica, Spain’s power operator, has issued an update in the last few moments that they are meeting 35% of the country’s energy demand.
44. “We can currently estimate the recovered demand at around 9,200 MW, which represents approximately 35% of the forecast demand,” a translation of the statement reads.
47. Danny Aeberhard
48. Europe regional editor, BBC World Service
49. Image source, Getty Images
50. Image caption,
51. People wait at a bus station at the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid
52. Some electricity supplies are being restored, both in Spain and Portugal. But the disruption continues to be massive.
53. Train services remain suspended, with thousands of people stranded. Shops in some areas have reported empty shelves, as people stock up on basic supplies and have to use cash due to electronic payment systems being down.
54. Spain’s central government is assuming emergency powers in those areas that have requested it — including Andalusia and Madrid.
55. The authorities are trying to project an air of calm. But, they’ve increased deployments of the security forces. They’re also calling on citizens to limit their use of mobile phones, with networks under strain, and not to make unnecessary trips.
58. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is expected to speak shortly to give an update after the country’s interior ministry declared a state of emergency.
59. The conference was scheduled to begin at 21:30 local time (20:30 BST), but seems to be delayed.
60. We will bring you the latest lines from him once it begins.
63. Power operator REN says electricity is back for 750,000 customers in Portugal.
64. Energy supply to the Carregado and Sacavém substations has been restored, the operator says on its website, adding that this is an “essential step” towards re-supplying Lisbon.
65. “All substations in Greater Porto are now operational, meaning consumers in the area should see their situation return to normal soon,” the statement adds.
68. Sofia Ferreira Santos
69. Live reporter
70. Image source, Reuters
71. Image caption,
72. Several regions of Spain, including the capital Madrid, have been affected by a massive power cut
73. As we’ve been reporting, Spain has declared a state of emergency and says regions that request emergency status will be granted extra support.
74. But what does this mean?
75. Spain’s 17 regions have their own directly-elected authorities, which handle a number of issues local to their area.
76. But when big events happen, such as a large-scale power cut as we’re seeing today, and impact large swathes of the country, regions are able to get further help from the national government by requesting it actions a state of emergency.
77. Today, for example, the regions of Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadura have asked the central Spanish government to take over public order and other functions while the country grapples with the impacts of the power cut.
78. According to Spanish law, an incident can be considered a state of emergency when it affects several autonomous regions in the country and they have a need for further resources, or require national leadership.
81. Devian Maside
82. Reporting from Madrid
83. Image source, Reuters
84. Image caption,
85. People were pictured earlier walking in Park Manzanares as Madrid Open matches were suspended amid the blackout
86. Power is coming back in the Spanish capital, some shops and the metro. Some rural areas are reporting the power being restored.
87. Public transport, the trains and metro are still not open to the public but security is gathering at the entrance of Sol metro station for it to be opened soon.
88. Rural areas north of Madrid have reported the power and Wifi coming back.
89. Streetlights have also just come on in the city.
92. Spanish power operator Red Electrica has said more than 20% of the country’s affected power capacity has been restored.
93. Electricity supply is being “progressively restored”, the operator says in a post on social media platform X.
94. Some of this supply has been coming from domestic sources and some from France, the post adds.
97. Spain’s Interior Ministry has declared a state of emergency following today’s power outage.
98. The emergency status will be applied to regions that request it, the ministry says.
99. So far, Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadura have asked for the central government to take over public order and other functions.
101. 
102. Georgina Rannard
103. Climate and science reporter
104. Image source, Reuters
105. Image caption,
106. A woman in Madrid displays the name of the town she needs to go to, hoping that any drivers going in that direction will take her
107. Not a single expert I’ve spoken to has a clear theory about what might lie behind this.
108. It’s not an exaggeration to say everyone is stumped. But this is a reminder of how vulnerable national electricity systems are.
109. “Over many decades, we can see that at least one major power outage, on the scale of this one, tends to happen somewhere in the world every year,” says Prof Keith Bell at Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde.
110. “Every event is different, both in how it started and how the characteristics of that particular system affected how it developed,” he suggests.
111. He says this outage in Portugal and Spain is unlikely to be down to one single fault.
112. Power operators are supposed to be what is called N-1 secure – meaning they can cope with any single outage and absorb that problem into the system.
115. Image source, Portugal.gov.pt
116. Image caption,
117. This is a screengrab from the website, which displays an error message when you try to access it
118. The website of the Portuguese government, portugal.gov.pt, is currently down and displaying an error message which reads:
119. “The government portal is currently unavailable. We will try to restore the service soon.”
120. It seems to have been down for a while – when we tried to access it earlier this afternoon, at around 14:20 BST, it was also displaying the same message.
123. Simon Browning
124. Business Reporter
125. Image source, EPA
126. Image caption,
127. Travellers at Lisbon’s airport faced the most cancelled departures earlier today, according to Cirium
128. We’ve had some data through on flight cancellations today from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
129. Sent to the BBC this afternoon, the statistics showed that 96 flights departing from Portugal had been cancelled, with Lisbon the worst-affected airport (29.63% of departures cancelled).
130. In Spain, 45 departures had been cancelled.
131. Barcelona’s airport saw 2.98% departures cancelled and in Madrid it was 2.56%.
132. This data relates to overall flight cancellations. We do not know the specific reasons for each cancellation.
133. Earlier, Spain’s transport minister said air traffic was operating at 80% capacity.
136. As we’ve been reporting throughout the day, the power outage has led to considerable disruption on roads across Portugal and Spain.
137. Here are some of the latest images we’ve seen of traffic officers working to direct vehicles in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.
138. Sections of Lisbon Airport have also been closed, with police officers there trying to control the flow of passengers in and out of the area.
139. Image source, Getty Images
140. Image caption,
141. A traffic officer in the Portuguese capital attempts to direct vehicles
142. Image source, EPA
143. Image caption,
144. Parts of Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport are closed and police have been present to control the flow of traffic
147. Vanessa Buschschlüter
148. Latin America and Caribbean digital editor
149. Pensioners Siegfried and Christine, who have been living on the outskirts of Madrid for the past 17 years after moving there from the US, say an old wind-up radio was their only source of information when the power cut happened.
150. The couple had bought the radio for emergencies when they lived in the US state of Virginia, where lengthy power cuts are more frequent.
151. With the internet, phone coverage and mobile reception all down in their area, they dug out the hand-cranked device, which enabled them to tune into Spanish radio stations.
152. “If it wasn’t for the radio, we’d struggle to find out what’s happening. I think there may be a run on battery-operated radios as soon as the shops reopen.”
155. Spanish power operator Red Electrica has released a statement about the areas where electricity has been restored.
156. Parts of Catalonia, Aragon, the Basque Country, Galicia, Asturias, Navarre, Castile and León, Extremadura, Andalucia, and La Rioja have now had their supply restored.
157. “Power has already been restored at substations in several areas,” the statement says, which the national grid operator says will gradually allow electricity to be restored elsewhere.
158. Earlier, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez confirmed electricity has been restored to some areas in the north and south of Spain but urged the public to act “responsibly”.
161. Marion Midaye
162. Reporting from Lisbon
163. With the metro system still shut here, bus stops are overwhelmed.
164. Phone networks are patchy, with some residents unable to connect at all. Supermarkets are seeing extremely long queues, with card payments down and many shoppers panic-buying essentials – echoing scenes from the Covid-19 pandemic.
165. Businesses across the city, as well as official judicial institutions like the courts, have closed their doors.
166. Portugal’s main broadcaster has also struggled to stay on air, facing technical issues as backup generators fail to provide consistent power.
167. Reaction from the news that it could take Spain six to eight hours to return to normal, and Portugal a week, has left some feeling unimpressed and frustrated. Others are not pleased that some Spanish cities have reportedly got electricity back while Portugal is still grappling with the outage.
168. The power cut has thrown Lisbon into total disruption, with no clear timeline yet for full restoration.
171. Simon Browning
172. Business Reporter
173. Image source, EPA
174. Image caption,
175. Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport has closed their arrivals hall amid the power cut
176. David Gleave, an aviation investigator, says any interruption to power supply will not affect air traffic control, as “a battery will kick in a maximum of a second later, so airplanes are safe”.
177. “From then on, a diesel-powered generator will keep power running so air traffic control can function”.
178. This same process “keeps the runway lights on, navigation aids and radar”, Gleave continues.
179. Enaire, Spain’s Air Navigation Organisation, said earlier on X: “Air traffic management operations from the five control centers @ENAIRE, external are maintained with the support of the generator sets planned for this type of incident. Appropriate regulations are being implemented to ensure the complete safety of operations.”

Page 5

2. Tony Brown
3. BBC World Service
4. 
5. Back in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, streets are choked with traffic. Police officers have taken over from not-working traffic lights, using whistles and hand signals.
6. Traffic lights stopped working across the city at lunchtime.
7. There are huge queues for the buses and the metro is closed. People are waiting in the hot sunshine under umbrellas.
8. One lady I spoke to under her umbrella says she is a dentist and was treating a patient when the power went off. She’d already been waiting two hours for the bus.
11. 
12. Pedro Sánchez also asks the public to use phones “responsibly” and says this is a critical moment for telecommunications in the country.
13. He urges people to only use phones for brief calls and necessary communication as the system is being fully re-established.
14. Sánchez says there will be increased presence of security forces in the streets, but that the outages have so far not caused any security issues across the country.
15. Hospitals are functioning and vulnerable people are being treated at their homes, the Spanish PM goes on to say, adding that ports have not reported any incidents, that air traffic has been reduced and train traffic halted for security reasons.
18. Sánchez continues, saying electricity has been restored to some areas in the north and the south of Spain “thanks to help from France and Morocco”.
19. Earlier, the Spanish grid operator said that power was being restored “in several areas of the north, south and west of the [Iberian] peninsula”.
20. “We urge you to turn to official channels for information,” Sánchez goes on – imploring people in Spain to avoid falling “for disinformation”.
23. 
24. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is now giving an update to reporters.
25. He says the cause of the power cut is still unknown and warns against speculation.
26. No cause can be discredited at this point, he adds.
29. Image source, Reuters
30. Image caption,
31. Travellers waiting outside Madrid’s Atocha train station earlier today
32. Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente has said it is not likely that medium and long-distance trains will resume normal service today.
33. He adds that the intention is to resume shorter distance commuter services as soon as the electricity supply has been restored.
34. Work is also under way to rescue those trapped on stranded services.
35. Puente says recovery of control systems will take time after the electricity supply has been resumed and trains will also need to be repositioned.
36. The aim will be to resume service for tomorrow if the supply is restored today.
37. Replying to a user of the social media platform X, Puente also says air traffic is currently operating at “80% of its capacity”.
38. The 20% reduction is due to security precautions relating to telecommunications.
41. Barbara Tasch
42. Live reporter
43. Image source, Cara McGoogan
44. Image caption,
45. Lengthy lines of people have been seen forming at a grocery store in Carcavelos – a suburb in the Portuguese capital
46. I have been speaking to Cara McGoogan, who is in the Carcavelos suburb of Lisbon and tells me that there has been a run on local grocery stores.
47. Supermarkets have shut as their doors all run on electricity and are heavily air conditioned.
48. “The local grocery store is still open, but it’s really full,” Cara says, describing a chaotic situation with the store quickly switching to cash as card payments stopped working. Cashiers were using the calculator on their phones to figure out what change to give, she says.
49. Cara, who is currently on holiday in the Portuguese capital, adds that they managed to buy some canned goods and vegetables and also bought some candles and battery-powered lights and torches.
50. All electricity has gone, she says, including power to fridges and freezers. They luckily have a gas-powered barbecue, so friends and neighbours are coming over tonight with all their perishables and they plan on cooking everything.
51. The blackout started around 11:50 local time (10:50 BST), Cara adds, and while phones were initially fine, the 5G networks are only working intermittently now and the lines went down fully for some time as well.
54. We were expecting to hear from Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez about the power cut a while ago – at 17:15 local time (16:15 BST) – but the news conference is yet to start.
55. We’ll bring you the latest lines from him as soon as we have them.
58. Spain’s nuclear reactors are in “safe condition” despite the country’s power outages, Spain’s nuclear safety council says.
59. The reactors automatically stopped working after the outage but emergency generators kicked in.
60. The shutdown was in line with the way in which Spain’s power plants are designed to respond to an unexpected power outage, the council adds.
63. Here are some of the latest images we’ve been seeing showing the fallout from the power outages across Spain and Portugal.
64. Image source, EPA
65. Image caption,
66. People waiting outside Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport after the area closed due to the blackout
67. Image source, Reuters
68. Image caption,
69. Spain’s national railway firm says all services are suspended, with passengers seen waiting outside this station in Madrid
70. Image source, Getty Images
71. Image caption,
72. People boarding buses outside the Atocha train station in Madrid after it closed due to power outages. Traffic jams have also been reported due to traffic lights not working
73. Image source, EPA
74. Image caption,
75. A woman buying supplies in a supermarket in north-eastern Spain that was hit by the blackout
76. Image source, EPA
77. Image caption,
78. Drivers waiting in line to fill up their vehicles in Lisbon, Portugal. Some people have reported petrol stations being closed or not taking payment
81. Image source, Reuters
82. Image caption,
83. Montenegro says the power cut is “not a reason for alarm” and asks Portuguese residents for patience
84. Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro says there is “no indication” that a cyber attack is behind the power cut impacting Portugal and Spain.
85. Speaking to journalists, he says the cause of the power cut is still unknown but it is now clear that it “did not originate in Portugal”.
86. He says he expects electrical power to return to Portugal “in the coming hours”.
87. Montenegro says he is taking a break from a ministerial meeting about the incident to visit Portuguese power firm REN to find out more.
88. The grid operator earlier said “extreme variations” in Spain’s temperature caused the power failure, according to Reuters news agency.
91. We can now bring you the latest from the organisers of the Madrid Open tennis tournament, which was disrupted by the power cut earlier.
92. Organiser say “in order to guarantee general safety, the nationwide power-cut experienced in Spain on Monday 28 April has forced the cancellation of both the day and night sessions at the Mutua Madrid Open”.
93. Image source, Reuters
94. Image caption,
95. A man in a shop at the Madrid Open earlier
98. Here’s more now from the new statement from Spanish grid operator, Red Electrica.
99. The statement adds that work is under way to “gradually” recover electricity throughout the Iberian peninsular.
100. Voltage has already been recovered in some areas – and consumers will start to see supply returning, it says.
103. The Spanish grid operator has said that power is being restored “in several areas of the north, south and west of the [Iberian] peninsula”.
106. Raphael Sheridan
107. Reporting from Malaga
108. Image source, Raphael Sheridan/BBC
109. I’m currently in staying in an apartment in Malaga – some bars and restaurants here have stayed open here benefitting from the glorious weather.
110. At 15.43 local time (14.43 BST), the apartment’s oven and washing machine suddenly started chirping, and a man on the street below me whooped.
111. Power has, it seems, returned to Malaga.
112. For about an hour I had been without phone service or internet – and therefore completely cut-off from the world – which leant an uneasiness to an otherwise sunny, peaceful day.
113. The hope here is that the lights now stay on.
116. French grid operator RTE is helping supply Spain’s electrical network, it says.
117. RTE says it has already re-supplied 700 MW of Spanish consumption and it will increase aid as soon as the Iberian grid can receive it.
118. There is no current impact in France, the company says, adding that all power has been restored to homes in the French Basque Country that were left without power earlier today.
119. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko says, external his country is “ready to assist in restoring the stable operation” of Europe’s energy networks and will share “knowledge and experience”.
122. Guy Hedgecoe
123. Madrid correspondent
124. I was on a train in Madrid at Chamartín station, one of the main stations in the city, when the outage happened.
125. A member of staff came on the train and told us to get off the train and evacuate the station. There’s a huge crowd of people outside at the moment.
126. We know other rail services around the country have been affected – underground rails have been heavily hit.
127. Traffic lights also seem to be affected, certainly in the bigger cities, so this all creates a certain amount of chaos.
128. People are desperate to find out if they can get back on their trains, if there’s going to be any service later today – there’s just a great deal of uncertainty.
131. James Kelly
132. BBC News
133. Image source, Tom McGilloway
134. Tom McGilloway, 31, is on holiday in Lisbon visiting members of his partner’s family.
135. They are due to return home to London tonight but are not clear whether their flight will be affected.
136. “It’s a strange vibe because everyone’s aware there is chaos and you can’t get public transport, no one knows what’s going on at the airport,” he tells me this afternoon.
137. “A lot of the restaurants and the shops can’t take payments because they have wired terminals, so it’s meant that everyone’s flooded out of main areas to a lot of the pop-up vendors.”
138. He says for the time being people are getting drinks and food – but vendors have told him they will only be able to keep working until the batteries run out on their payment terminals.
139. “If I need to book a hotel if the plane is cancelled, I don’t know how I can do it if payments are down,” he adds.
140. “My partner’s parents are trying to get petrol so they can pick us up to take us back to Alentejo but many petrol stations are closed or not taking payment. We might be stuck with no plan for where to stay tonight.”
143. 
144. “Power outages in Portugal and Spain are impacting access to some airports and affecting some airports operations including Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona,” easyJet says in a statement.
145. “Like all airlines, we are experiencing some disruption to our flying programme meaning that some return flights from Lisbon and Madrid have been unable to operate,” the airline goes on, adding: “Our flying programme at Porto and Faro airports is operating as planned.”
146. The flight operator tells passengers to check local travel advice and their flight tracker for more information.
147. They also say passengers in Spain or Portugal who are unable to travel are being provided with free of charge transfers within 72 hours, or a flight voucher.
150. Image source, Getty Images
151. In an update, Spain’s power company says voltage has been restored in certain substations in areas of the north, south and west of the country.
152. “We continue to work with all resources to achieve the restoration of supply as soon as possible throughout the entire territory,” Red Electrica says.
153. But in an update of its own, Spain’s national railway firm Renfe says all services are still suspended “due to power outages”.
154. Meanwhile, Madrid Metro service says all its lines also remain closed.
157. We’re now hearing from Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, who says there are no indications that today’s power outage has been caused by a cyber attack at this point.
158. Costa says he is in touch with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Portuguese PM Luís Montenegro – with grid operators in both countries “working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply”.

Page 6

2. The European Commission says it is “in contact” with Spanish and Portuguese authorities “to understand the underlying cause” of today’s blackout.
3. “The commission will keep monitoring the situation and make sure that there is smooth information exchange,” a spokesperson for the EU’s executive arm says.
4. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also been in touch with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. European authorities will “coordinate efforts and share information to help restore the electricity system”, von der Leyen writes on social media.
5. Antonio Costa, a former Portuguese premier who heads the European Council of EU member states, is also in contact with the Spanish and Portuguese leaders, EU officials add.
6. Image source, Getty Images
7. Image caption,
8. Images of metro stations in darkness are circulating online
11. Some final remarks from Portugal’s power firm REN, which goes on on to say that, “due to the complexity of the phenomenon and the need to rebalance electricity flows internationally, it is estimated that full normalisation of the network could take up to a week”.
12. Earlier, the head of Spain’s electricity network said that restoring power could take between six and 10 hours.
15. We have a bit more for you now from the Portuguese energy company REN (Rede Eletrica Nacional).
16. It says that “due to extreme temperature variations in the interior or Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 KV), a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration'”.
17. “These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”
18. As we said in our last post, Spain is yet to respond to these claims.
21. We’re now hearing from Portugal’s grid operator, REN, which says interruptions to the country’s power supply were the result of a “fault in the Spanish electricity grid.
22. They say this was related to a “rare atmospheric phenomenon”, but don’t clarify what that means.
23. Spain is yet to respond to the claim.
24. We’ll bring you more on this in our next few posts.
27. Holly Wallis
28. Live reporter
29. Will David, 40, a Briton living in Lisbon, says he was having a haircut and beard trim in the basement of a barbers in Lisbon when the power went down.
30. “Customers needing electric razors had to leave in various states of haircut and shave completion,” says Will.
31. Rita, the barber, kindly found him a spot by the window upstairs to finish the cut with scissors and left Will looking “halfway presentable”.
32. “The walk home felt very strange, both with the lack of traffic lights meaning a complete free-for-all for vehicles and pedestrians on the roads – as well as so many people milling around outside their places of work with nothing to do.”
33. Image source, Getty Images
34. Image caption,
35. People queuing for a bus in Lisbon earlier – trains and trams went down in the power cuts
38. Josh Parry
39. LGBT and identity reporter
40. Curtis Gladden, 29, is originally from Liverpool but recently moved to in La Vall D’Uixo, about 30 miles from Valencia.
41. He tells BBC News his phone signal hadn’t worked for around two hours, which he says was “scary” as he struggled to get updates about what was happening.
42. Now the signal has returned, he and other locals are using the time without electricity to get outside and enjoy a drink in the town’s pavement cafes.
43. It’s a local holiday in some parts of Spain, known as Saint Vincent Ferrer’s day.
44. Curtis and his partner Miguel were hoping to join in the festivities but say they are “uncertain” whether they’ll take place.
45. He says: “Nothing is working; we came to get some food and a drink but they can’t cook without electricity. There’s supposed to be a festival today but we’re not sure if it will happen now.”
46. 
47. Image caption,
48. Residents in La Vall D’Uixo are taking the chance to have a drink outside during the power outage
51. Molly Stazicker
52. Transport reporter
53. Image source, Reuters
54. In our last post, we brought you an update from some of the affected airports across Spain and Portugal.
55. Now Gatwick, in London, has also reported issues – telling the BBC it’s experiencing short delays on flights to Spain and Portugal.
56. The airport says there have so far been no cancellations and it’s waiting for the issues to be resolved.
57. Meanwhile, airline Ryanair says it’s monitoring potential disruptions to flights operating to and from all airports in mainland Spain and Portugal.
60. Let’s have a quick look now at the situation at airports.
61. Madrid’s international airport – Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas – and Barcelona’s Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Pratairport currently have notices saying “some incidents are occurring” as a result of the outage. The airports add that contingency generators are active, but warn anyone travelling to check with airlines as disruptions may affect access and ground transportation.
62. Lisbon and Porto airports similarly warn that “operation constraints” may occur.
63. Portuguese news agency Lusa is reporting that airport operator Ana has activated emergency generators – enabling essential operations to continue in Porto and Faro, but Lisbon is seeing further limitations.
64. Looking at departure boards, airports including Madrid, Barcelona and Porto are seeing delays.
67. Bernadette McCague
68. BBC News
69. Emily Thorowgood, who’s from Bristol but who works as a teacher in an international school in Lisbon, has told the BBC she is currently “teaching in the dark” after the power went off at around noon local time.
70. “Lots of parents are taking their children out due to the power cuts,” she says.
71. “It was flashing on and off for a long while but seems to have finally given up.”
72. Image source, Getty Images
73. Image caption,
74. A queue at a cash machine in Lisbon earlier – card payments are down across the city
77. Bernadette McCague
78. BBC News
79. Image source, EPA
80. Image caption,
81. A closed pump in Castellon, north-east Spain
82. Lesley has lived in Spain for 11 years with her husband. The couple are currently based in Murcia, Spain.
83. “There’s very little news about what’s happened,” she tells the BBC.
84. “We are worried about food, water, cash and petrol in case this goes on for a couple of days.”
85. She says there’s “more to worry about” than the Madrid Open tennis tournament being suspended.
86. “My husband is driving around now trying to find a petrol station that’s open to get petrol for the generator so that we can plug in the fridge.”
89. Image source, EPA
90. Pedro Sánchez is currently hosting an “extraordinary” meeting of Spain’s national security council, the prime minister’s press office says in a statement on social media, external.
91. We’re yet to hear an update from the meeting, but when we do we’ll let you know.
94. James Kelly
95. BBC News
96. In the Spanish resort of Benidorm, Mark England tells us how the lack of power has disrupted his holiday.
97. He says he and his partner Jonnie had gone for lunch when the lights in the dining room started to go off.
98. “Then everything went off and the fire alarm started going off and the fire doors started closing,” he tells the BBC.
99. “There’s still no power. We’re walking down the main street now and the majority of shops are in darkness and shuttered up or have people on the entrances saying you can’t come in.
100. “There’s no cash machines, no traffic lights so it’s strange. It’s kind of bizarre.”
101. Worst of all, at a holiday destination like Benidorm, Mark says bars are unable to serve drinks because of a lack of power to their pumps.
102. “If you haven’t got a drink, you are out of luck,” he says.
103. 
104. Image caption,
105. Mark England (left) has had his holiday in Benidorm disrupted by the power cut
108. The head of Spain’s electricity grid says restoring power could take hours.
109. Speaking at a news conference, Red Electrica CEO Eduardo Prieto tells reporters that the operation to solve the issue could take “between six and ten hours”.
110. We’ll bring you more on this as soon as we get it.
113. It’s been more than two hours since a massive power cut left swathes of Spain and Portugal without power.
114. What we know so far

• In some regions, trains have been evacuated, traffics lights are out, and shops and restaurants have been plunged into darkness
• The internet is also affected and mobile phone networks are reportedly down in Spain
• Spanish grid operator Red Electrica says it’s working with regional energy companies to restore supplies
• In Madrid – the capital of Spain – Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida has warned residents to stay where they are
• Meanwhile, in Portugal, airline TAP Air tells passengers not to travel to airports until further notice
• Parts of France also briefly lost power but the French grid operator RTE says the network is now operating normally

1. What we don’t yet know

• How and why this happened – local authorities say they’re racing to figure this out
• When power will be fully restored, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s office saying: “The government is working to identify the origin of this incident and dedicating all possible resources to resolve it as quickly as possible”

1. Image source, Reuters
2. Image caption,
3. Earlier, the outage stopped play at the Madrid Open, with Britain’s Jacob Fearnley among those forced off court
6. Image source, Getty Images
7. We’ve now heard from the mayor of Madrid, who’s asking residents to stay put where possible.
8. “I ask all residents of Madrid to keep their movements to an absolute minimum and, if at all possible, to remain where they are. We want to keep all roads clear,” José Luis Martínez-Almeida says in a video posted on social media.
9. Speaking from the integrated emergency security centre of Madrid he says that on top of traffic lights being off, tunnels of certain highways have had to be closed.
10. The mayor also asks residents to only call emergency services if it is “truly urgent”: “If emergency calls go unanswered, go to the police and the fire stations in person, where they will try to deal with all the emergencies which may present themselves.”
13. Joaquin Sorolla train station in Valencia, Spain, is full of passengers who are stranded after their trains were affected by the power outage.
14. Earlier, Spain’s national railway company Renfe said the “entire National Electricity Grid” had been “cut off”.
15. Image source, Reuters
16. Image source, Reuters
17. Image source, Reuters
20. Hannah Lowney, who is from Manchester but lives in Madrid, says she was halfway through scanning her grocery shopping in Aldi when the power went out.
21. In a voice message to the BBC’s Naga Munchetty, on Radio 5 Live, she explains:
22. “Looking out the window it seemed like it was the whole street [that lost power], and then the people in Aldi said it was a nationwide power cut.
23. “The traffic lights are out. People are coming out of their offices and walking home because they can’t tell when the buses are coming.
24. “It seems no one has an idea of when it will come back.
25. “It’s a bit disconcerting that it’s the whole country, I’ve never experienced this before.”
26. Image source, Reuters
27. Image caption,
28. Metro workers in Spain have barricaded stations and are telling members of the public to find alternative routes
31. Image source, Reuters
32. Image caption,
33. People pictured on their phones at the Madrid Open tennis tournament, which was suspended due to the outage
34. Mobile phone networks have also been hit by the massive power cut.
35. Reporters for the AFP news agency in Madrid and Barcelona saw people heading into the streets, holding their smartphones up to try to connect to a network.
36. Many people used the radio, rather than their phones, to get updates, the news agency says.
39. Portuguese airline TAP Air has warned passengers not to head to airports until further notice.
40. In a statement on its Facebook page, the airline says some services are not operating as usual and asks passengers to await more information.
43. Parts of France temporarily lost power following the outages in Spain and Portugal, Reuters news agency reports, citing French grid operator RTE.
44. A spokeswoman for RTE gives no further detail on the extent of the outage, but says that power has now resumed after the brief interruption.

Page 7

2. We’re seeing some reports about Portuguese electricity distribution network, E-Redes, working on re-establishing power in phases.
3. However, their website has just gone down “for maintenance”. We’ll have more updates from Portugal as soon as we get them.
4. Image source, Reuters
5. Image caption,
6. A closed metro station in Lisbon
9. Madrid’s Metro says its service has been “interrupted” due to the power outage, in a post on X.
10. Images from this afternoon in the city, like the one below, show a barricaded station.
11. Several videos on social media appear to show passengers walking around dark subway stations in the city. We’ve teams working to verify the footage.
12. Image source, Reuters
13. Image caption,
14. Blue tape cordoned off a Metro station in the city
17. Barbara Tasch
18. Live reporter
19. I’ve been speaking to Kirsty, a teacher in Madrid, who tells me that she – and many others – “don’t know anything” about why the power in the city has gone out.
20. She says there have been mixed reports from Spanish media about the extent of the power cuts and no official communication from the government.
21. Kirsty, who teaches in an international school just outside the Spanish capital, says teachers at her school are now “wondering how we’ll get home” following reports of traffic jams due to lights not working.
22. She also says pupils at her school are aware there’s a blackout but don’t know the extent of it as they can’t access 5G on school premises and don’t have access to Wi-Fi.
23. Kirsty says that the outage began affecting her school and the area it’s in around 12:45 local time (11:45 BST), but “luckily” lunches had already been cooked for the children.
24. “There’s zero electricity,” she says, adding that there have been surges – meaning power has come back on – but only for a few seconds each time, nothing permanent.
27. We’ve just had this picture of queues at cash points in Lisbon, where card payments are not being accepted due to the power outage.
28. “It’s crazy, we were trying to pay for our brunch and it all shut down,” says Emily Lansdown, who’s in the city. “We’ve been trying to get a taxi to the beach because all the trains are down.”
29. Image source, Emily Lansdown
32. We’re beginning to see the first images showing the effects of the power outage in Spain and Portugal.
33. In one, a chef uses his phone’s torch to continue working, while a metro station in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon can be seen shuttered.
34. Meanwhile, people at the Madrid Open can be seen leaving the tournament in darkness. We reported earlier that play had been suspended due to the power issues.
35. Image source, Reuters
36. Image caption,
37. A chef uses a torch to continue working at a restaurant in Madrid
38. Image source, Reuters
39. Image caption,
40. Spectators at the Madrid Open are forced to leave under a veil of darkness
41. Image source, Reuters
42. Image caption,
43. A closed metro station in Lisbon
46. Guy Hedgecoe
47. Reporting from Madrid
48. The power outage began soon after midday Spanish time and it appears to have affected cities across the country, although the Balearic and Canary Islands do not appear to have been affected.
49. Mainland Portugal and Andorra also saw a similar blackout.
50. Public transport has been disrupted, with passengers evacuated from trains and traffic lights also affected.
51. In Madrid, many businesses, shops and restaurants were plunged into darkness. Internet service was also affected.
52. Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica has said it is working with energy companies to restore power.
55. In an update, Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica says it’s beginning to recover power in the north and south of the country.
56. It says this is “key to gradually restoring the electricity supply”.
57. “We continue working to restore power,” it adds.
58. Earlier, the company confirmed the outages and said all its resources were being dedicated to solving the issue.
61. We’re beginning to hear how the outage has affected Portugal, too.
62. According to the Reuters news agency, Portuguese police say traffic lights are affected across the country, the metro is closed in capital city Lisbon as well as Porto, and trains are not running.
65. Have you been affected by the power cuts in Spain and Portugal? Share your experiences:
66. In some cases a selection of your comments and questions will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.
69. Play has been suspended at the Madrid Open – an annual clay tennis tournament – due to the power outage currently affecting the Spanish capital and surrounding region.
70. British tennis player Jacob Fearnley was forced to leave the court, PA media reports.
71. The loss of power affected scoreboards and a camera above the court, it adds.
72. Image source, Reuters
73. Image caption,
74. One of the courts was left almost entirely empty after the power outage forced play to be suspended
77. Spain’s national railway company, Renfe, says the country’s “entire National Electricity Grid was cut off” at 12:30 local time (11:30 BST).
78. “Trains stopped” and were “without departures” at all stations, the company says.
81. Spain’s electricity grid operator Red Electrica has confirmed power outages across the country.
82. It is working to restore electricity supplies and says it’s working to analyse the causes of the blackouts.
83. “All resources are being dedicated to solving it,” it says in a post on X.
86. A huge power outage seems to be affecting swathes of Spain and Portugal.
87. Local reports say there are traffic jams in the centre of the Spanish capital, Madrid, due to traffic lights not working.
88. Information is coming through thick and fast, and we’ll bring you the latest as and when we get it. Stay with us.