(Bloomberg) — The worst blackout to hit Europe in over a decade dragged on into Monday evening across much of Spain and Portugal even as Spain’s grid operator gradually restored power to parts of the country.
By 9 p.m., there was 18.3 gigawatts of demand on the power grid, about three quarters the amount seen just before the blackout happened around 12:30 p.m. local time, according to data from grid operator Red Electrica. An hour earlier, the operator reported that nearly 20% of power supply in Spain was restored.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in a Monday evening address to the nation reeling from the sudden blackout that disrupted public transit, phone services and airports had little to offer beyond words of sympathy.
“We are aware of the relevance and tremendous impact of what’s happening today, of the seriousness for people’s everyday lives, of economic losses for businesses, companies and industries, of the anxiety that it’s causing in thousands of homes,” he said. Spain’s Interior Ministry also declared a state of emergency in five areas at the request of those regions.
A blackout on this scale is highly unusual and comes at a time when Europe’s grid systems are under strain from increasing amounts of renewable energy. Although it’s not yet clear what caused the issue, solar output is particularly strong throughout Europe at this time of year. A surge in solar meant power prices turned negative during the weekend in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The last time a blackout of this scale happened in Europe was in 2006 when some 15 million households were affected. That outage was caused by a frequency drop that originated in Germany and split the region into three. It lasted for two hours, while Spain’s breakdown has already stretched far beyond that with no clear end in sight.
Transmission grids need to stay at a stable frequency to operate smoothly and any deviations can damage equipment. When grid frequency starts changing rapidly, it causes so-called oscillations, which can cause chain reactions that ultimately lead to a blackout. That’s what happened in Spain, but how the sequence was set off remains uncertain.
“We still don’t have conclusive information on the causes of the cuts,” Sanchez said. “It’s better not to speculate. We will know the causes, we’re not ruling out any hypothesis.”
“For the moment, the investigation seems to point to a technical/cable issue,” the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity said in an emailed statement, but added that it’s “closely monitoring” the situation and is in contact with national and EU authorities.
While some areas across Spain — including parts of Madrid — gradually came back online in the afternoon, restoring all supply in the country will take until at least into the evening, according to grid operator Red Electrica.
The event shows just how fragile grids can be. When one transmission line fails, it can overload others, and “you have the cascading effect,” Artjoms Obusevs, senior researcher at ZHAW School of Engineering in Switzerland.
Most of Spain and Portugal lost power around midday. Data from Red Electrica showed power demand in free fall shortly after noon in Madrid, dropping more than 10 gigawatts — more than a third of the country’s total electricity usage for the day.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said his government is collaborating with Spain to find out the origin of the power outage. In a social media post, he said his administration is working with authorities to re-establish the supply of energy on Monday, with the priority given to the national health system, transport and other critical infrastructure.
Spain may face questions over its decision to decommission its nuclear plants which currently contribute 20% of its power mix. It’s also set to close its last coal plant this year in favor of renewable energy with gas plants for back up.
The stock market operated normally in both countries, with Spain’s Ibex35 trimming earlier gains shortly after the blackout hit before recovering, but there was disruption. The country’s antitrust watchdog CNMC delayed a meeting where a decision may have been made on BBVA SA’s bid to buy Banco de Sabadell SA, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
While Spain’s Canary and Balearic Islands were unaffected, public transport, traffic lights and phone services were mostly down across the mainland.
In Madrid, office workers filled the city’s financial district, while ambulances raced through the main thoroughfare Castellana Avenue, where traffic agents used speakers on cars to direct vehicles and people. ATMs in the city center were not working, and the main Madrid airport has cautioned that it’s experiencing a high degree of delays.
In an effort to speed up the recovery, Spain is switching on gas plants and hydro plants. With such an extensive outage, there is a meticulous process to get things up and running again called a black start. Grid operators have plans in place for this that they hope to never use.
At the time of the outage, the vast majority of the power was generated by solar. Sanchez called on Spaniards to conserve power and avoid unnecessary usage.
“Telecommunications are now in a critical moment,” Sanchez said in his address to the nation. “We’ll go through critical hours until we recover electricity fully so we need to make short phone calls.”
–With assistance from Rachel Morison, Thomas Gualtieri, Laura Millan, Clara Hernanz Lizarraga, Ryan Gallagher and William Mathis.
(Adds time frame in first, national grid operator’s grid status update in second, state of emergency in five regions in fifth paragraph)
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