A monumental blackout cast more than 55 million people into darkness—from Spain all the way across the Iberian Peninsula to Portugal’s Atlantic shore. The impacts were limited to the UK. France, too, felt the impacts. The blackout hit without warning on Thursday, making waves among policymakers and professionals. Investigations into what’s producing it are just starting right now. Spanish President Pedro Sánchez ruled out the precautionary motive for the cut among the possible explanations.
Power restoration efforts are already underway. Indeed, Red Eléctrica de España, the operator of Spain’s electricity grid, recently declared electric recovery to almost half the country. Regions including Cataluña, Aragón, País Vasco, Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias, Navarra, Castilla y León, Extremadura, and Andalucía are already once again reconnected. Sadly, these regions are the first to lose power after such an incident and the last to have it restored.
The impending blackout was probably caused by anomalous oscillations in those very high voltage lines. This effect is known as induced atmospheric vibration. This push-pull effect reversed power flows on many connections between north and south across the highly interconnected eastern grid. Experts have cautioned that this reality is an enormous crisis. Electrical engineers and system operators need to do everything in their power to prevent these events from happening.
Paul Cuffe is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at University College Dublin. He reiterated the seriousness of the crisis. “You should be anticipating every failure that can happen, and you should survive any one of them,” he stated. He elaborated by noting that even if the grid were entirely functional, it could still take weeks to get the lights back on. Even with an absolutely perfectly healthy grid, to accomplish that black start could take 12 hours or 16 hours. You have to do it one year at a time, and it’s a long process,” he continued.
Beyond the logistical hurdles of launching an emergency restoration, the blackout’s consequences were felt on life’s most basic level from day one. When the outage began, trains and traffic lights very suddenly lost power, creating a dangerous situation. Spanish authorities assured that when the cyclone hit, hospitals were not impacted by the blackout. Air traffic was uniquely and “voluntarily” reduced by 20 percent as a precautionary measure the day of the incident.
The blackout’s timing is particularly critical given Spain and Portugal’s current interconnection capacity with the rest of Europe stands at around 6 percent. This number is well short of the European Union’s goal of at least 15 percent by 2030. Experts contend that increasing this capacity is vital to achieve long-term resilience to future similar incidents.
Gustavo, a resident affected by the blackout, expressed a lighthearted perspective amidst the chaos: “No one has lost their sense of humor, and people are going out to enjoy some digital disconnection.” He humorously added, “I’ll need a couple of hours to decide whether I should get lavender vanilla spa or geranium.”
Ketan Joshi, independent climate and energy consultant, discussed the difference between managing change and continuing to repeat failures. “The challenge is to constantly match supply and demand,” he noted. As he pointed out, blackouts like this one are hardly ever seen. Yet he underscored that the possibility of such occurrences is ever-present for workers in the industry.
This blackout is huge, comparable only to the nationwide power failure that Italy experienced in 2003. Both events serve as a powerful reminder of the fragility of our power systems. The Iberian Peninsula’s hurdles highlight the issues faced by today’s electrical systems, as well as their vulnerabilities.
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