Portuguese say weather caused power outage on Iberian Peninsula

A rare meteorological phenomenon in inland Spain caused the power outage on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal’s REN, which manages the grid in the country of ten million people, said this afternoon. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said this evening that the government had not yet ruled out any possible cause of the outage. Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said the situation in Portugal could largely return to normal over the course of today, Reuters reported.

The Portuguese company said the power outage in the country had effectively been imported from Spain. The two Iberian countries have strongly interconnected electricity grids. According to REN, the problem originated in inland Spain, where an extreme temperature fluctuation impaired the functioning of very high-voltage lines.

Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said this afternoon that the situation in Portugal could largely return to normal later today. REN said it could take up to a week for the grid to return fully to normal operation in Portugal. The prime minister added that so far there was no indication the outage had been caused by a cyberattack, as some members of his government had suggested. However, he said nothing could yet be ruled out completely.

He urged the country’s residents to act responsibly and limit travel and mobile phone use to brief calls. “We face critical hours before power supplies are restored,” the Spanish prime minister said. However, he said public authorities, hospitals and police were operating in line with emergency plans.

Portugal, like Spain, was hit by a major power outage at around 12:30 CEST. The loss of electricity significantly affected Lisbon, where, for example, people had to be evacuated from stationary metro trains, according to AFP.