A blame game has erupted in Spain over the electricity blackouts that paralysed the region earlier this year, after the country’s government blamed ‘poor planning’ on the national grid operator and ‘improper’ actions by electricity companies.
Following last night’s release of a report on the devastating power cut, which affected the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain’s energy minister Sara Aagesen officially ruled out a cyberattack.
Instead, she said, grid operator REE misjudged power needs on April 28 when a surge in voltage caused the blackout.
She said: ‘The system did not have sufficient dynamic voltage control capacity.’
The minister added that REE told the government ‘that they made their calculations and estimated that [switching on more thermal plants] was not necessary at this time.
‘They only set it for the early hours of the day, not the central hours’.
Aagesen said several technical issued had exacerbated the issue, including the ‘poor planning’ of operators of the grid who did not fins a replacement for a power plant that had already given prior warning it would shut down that day.
As a result, REE did not have enough power stations to meet demand when the surge hit to control it.
People shop for groceries using their phone as flashlight during a widespread power outage that struck Spain and Portugal around midday on Monday, with the cause still unknown in Madrid, Spain on April 28, 2025
Travelers covered with Red Cross blankets lie on the floor as they prepare to spend the night at the Atocha train station, following a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Madrid on April 28, 2025
Tourists wait for the bus in downtown Madrid to reach the airport during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Madrid on April 28, 2025
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a press conference at the Spanish Embassy in Beijing, China April 11, 2025
The report also blamed power plants run by private companies: ‘The generating units that should have controlled the voltage, and many of which were financially compensated to do so, did not absorb all the reactive power that was expected in a context of high voltages.’
The minister did not name companies that allegedly disconnected their installations ‘improperly… to protect their installations.’
But today, power companies hit back and blamed REE for the power cut.
The outage, said to be one of the worst ever in Europe, started on the afternoon of April 28 and lasted through nightfall, affecting tens of millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula.
It is believed that at least eight people died as a result of outage-related incidents.
Offices closed and traffic was snarled in Madrid and Lisbon, while some civilians in Barcelona directed traffic. Train services in both countries stopped.
It disrupted businesses, hospitals, transit systems, cellular networks and other critical infrastructure.
Emergency services and rail workers in Spain had to help evacuate some 35,000 people from over 100 trains that stopped on the tracks when the electricity was cut.
Just a month after the widespread powercut, all major mobile networks went down in Spain this week.
A dark metro station in Lisbon during a widespread power outage that struck Spain and Portugal on April 28, 2025
A family eats a snack by candlelight during a blackout in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, April 28, 2025
A metro worker passes underneath barricade tape, to enter Legazpi Metro station, after the metro was closed during a power outage, in Madrid, Spain, April 28, 2025
Movistar, Orange, Vodafone, Digimobil and O2 were all reported to have been affected by outages hitting professional services, including health centres.
Complaints soared as landline, internet and emergency contact services were knocked offline early Tuesday morning.
Madrid, Andalucía, Galicia, the Basque Country, Aragon, Navarra, Extremadura and the Valencian Community were all reportedly affected.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .