Update 9 PM – At 8:10 PM, Spanish grid operator Ree announced that power had been restored to around 20 per cent of mainland Spain, thanks to 5,508 megawatts of local generation plus supply coming from France. In Portugal, no official updates have been provided for the time being: "It is currently impossible to predict when the situation will return to normal," grid operator Ren stated in a press release, though a possible restoration during the night has been mentioned.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez convened an extraordinary meeting of the national security council and declared that "no clear information on the causes of the incident is yet available." European Council President António Costa stated that there are no elements suggesting this could be a cyberattack. Another hypothesis is instead gaining ground, put forward by Ree itself, which describes the event as "exceptional and extraordinary" and potentially attributable to a rare atmospheric phenomenon linked to the extreme temperature fluctuations recorded across the Iberian territory. These are said to have caused anomalous oscillations in high-voltage lines, expanding and contracting the metals of the grid, and in turn triggering the power outage.

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A power blackout of gigantic proportions struck the entire Iberian Peninsula — Portugal and Spain — as well as southern France, starting at 12:33 PM Italian time today. The news was immediately confirmed by Portuguese grid operator Ren. The interruption of electricity supply is causing disruptions across every sector, from telecommunications to transport. Rail traffic in particular has been halted throughout Spain, while road traffic is severely hampered by the absence of traffic lights. The Madrid government has urged citizens to avoid travelling: metro lines in the capital, as well as in cities such as Barcelona, are also at a standstill.

The causes of the blackout are still to be determined

The reason behind the mega-incident remains unknown: the authorities of Spain and Portugal have announced they have launched investigations to understand the causes of the problem, and a cyberattack has not been ruled out. Establishing what happened will in any case require several hours, and the Spanish grid operator has urged people to "avoid speculation." Madrid's authorities have added that it will take between six and ten hours to restore supply across the entire national territory.