Nationwide electric network blackout - Spain, Portugal, parts of France and Italy without power.

[SleeplessEcho]

At approximately noon today there's been a nationwide blackout affecting pretty much the entirety of peninsular Spain. Communications are still up for the most part, apparently, but this appears to be deteriorating.

Reports and hearsay suggest that Portugal is affected too, with similar news in at least parts of France and Italy. *Edit*: some parts of Germany appear affected as well.

Reports of trains and metro cars that have run out of power mid-journey, forcing passengers to evacuate, sometimes within tunnels. *Edit* Apparently the entire spanish railway network is out of comission, according to the state's managing company: https://x.com/InfoAdif/status/1916808859278049769

A generalized incident affecting electric supply keeps railway traffic stopped across the whole network.

Traffic lights are out, causing significant disorder in cities and denesly populated areas. Hospitals and critical infrastructure are switching to on-site generators.

At least Lisbon's airport (the public parts of the terminal I suppose, hoping the Tower is okay) is also out of power, with the expected ensuing confusion.

No information has been provided regarding the root cause of the issue.

----

I don't have any English-speaking news articles handy, but the issue is already making the rounds in local news outlets. Some links:

https://www.ondacero.es/noticias/sociedad/directo-corte-luz-espana-todo-apagon-nacional_20250428680f5c2be52da91ed5321517.html

https://www.eleconomista.es/energia/noticias/13337367/04/25/apagon-en-toda-espana-usuarios-a-lo-largo-de-todo-el-pais-reportan-caidas-en-el-suministro-electrico.html

 

[cdavid0715]

Some people are wondering if it’s a cyberattack, is there any evidence of this?

 

[SleeplessEcho]

Some people are wondering if it’s a cyberattack, is there any evidence of this?

I've seen this mentioned in passing in the news, but no other evidence at this point.

 

[Tealeaf]

My heartfelt thoughts and prayers go to the tourists who are forced to go out on beaches and find other activities than rot online

 

[Foltest]

It is very sus that the power went out in all three countries at the same time.
I lean towards cyberattack until more info comes.

 

[Reticulan Joe]

It is very sus that the power went out in all three countries at the same time.
I lean towards cyberattack until more info comes.

My understanding is that the European power grid is pretty integrated across national borders, so a cascading failure - where one big failure induces failures further on - is not an impossibility.

 

[Sparkletor 2.0]

Have they tried switching it off, waiting 30 seconds, and turning it back on?

 

[Carrier Pigeon]

I watched Blackout on HBO Max, I'll know what to do when shit reaches my country

 

[JesterTheMad]

You see, Euros don't need this American "electric power". Euros are strong!

 

[Cuckoman]

My bet is not a cyberattack but a combination of
state owned utilities being mismanaged for a long time combined with "climate destroying reliable energy" being displaced by "unreliable green energy" and the green energy had a bad day.

That is my expectation o what happened. I could well be completely wrong.

 

[Lifeguard Hermit]

Reminder that they're turning off the Helios structure in California just because they need to pretend like that's the reason all the birds are dying. You're already in a dystopian future

 

[Dawdler]

The worst unmaintained power grid collapses. What a shock.

 

[Otterly]

Hmmm, do we bet on ‘catastrophic failure due to years of mismanagement’ or ‘sabotage.’
Whatever it is we just blame it on Russian Hackers, right? That’s SOP?
The lights are still on here in Albion (literally, it’s cloudy and dark. Metaphorically they went out a long while ago.)

 

[BrightonAndHoveAlbion]

Lazy Spaniard fell asleep at the wheel leading to a cascading power failure is my bet.

 

[the rat]

If it was cyberattack it'd be even funnier. Why the fuck is the hardware for the electrical grid connected to the internet?

 

[Lovely Kin]

"It's Russia.. because Russia done it"

 

[MugolEx]

This Wikipedia article was created awfully fast. lmao.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_European_power_outage

Would the tariffs have anything to do with this? If so, Suffah Europoors. Suffah.

 

[Übertroon]

This is what you get for continuing to vote for lefties who hate you degos

 

[desudesu]

Somehow this will be blamed on orange man

 

[MugolEx]

Somehow this will be blamed on orange man

It will also somehow be blamed on the Orange man of the Tundra, Putin.