It looks like a massive swath of Europe achieved instantaneous Net Zero.
An unprecedented power outage struck large parts of Spain and Portugal, as well as some areas of southern France. The blackout began on April 28, around midnight local time in Spain, disrupting daily life for millions and causing widespread chaos in transportation, communications, and essential services.
Portugal’s grid operator Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) said electrical supply was lost across the entire Iberian Peninsula, and in parts of France, shortly after midday. Hours later, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said authorities were still not sure what caused the blackout.The outage took out lighting and power sockets, and caused subway systems to suddenly fail. In Madrid, traffic piled up on the roads after the lights went out.“I was driving and suddenly there was no traffic lights … It was a bit of a jungle,” Luis Ibáñez Jiménez told CNN. “I saw a massive bus coming, and I had to accelerate a lot to go past it.”
Over 60 million people were impacted by the blackout. Metro systems in Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon halted, and Spanish train operator Renfe canceled all departures. Airports, including Madrid-Barajas and Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado, faced significant delays and partial closures, with some flights canceled or grounded.
Though power has been restored in southern France, Spain and Portugal are still reeling from the truly historic outage.
“Trains are not operating and traffic lights are down, causing chaos. Many cities are completely dark,” Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said, reporting from Valencia Airport in Spain.“Authorities have stated that it is the first time in history such a large-scale blackout has occurred,” she added.
Hospitals and emergency services switched to backup generators. Emergency services responded to hundreds of incidents, including elevator rescues and medical emergencies.
Additionally, ATMs and card payment systems failed, leading to long lines at banks and stores, and many shops only accepted cash. Internet and mobile networks were also disrupted in some regions. Over 200 people had to be rescued from stopped elevators.
The leading explanation from Portugal’s grid operator (REN) is that a rare atmospheric phenomenon, described as “induced atmospheric vibration,” triggered the blackout.
REN said: “Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as ‘induced atmospheric vibration’. These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network.”In certain weather conditions where the air is warm, damp and windy – the wires can gallop – which is where they visibly swing.That can cause things to physically break or snap.The bigger problem is if the ionised air around the cable starts to interact with the cable itself. That changes the frequency inside the wire. Making it different to the rest of the grid.If those differences become too great, the system shuts itself down for safety reasons.
However, many are skeptical of the phenomenon, as the term was essentially unknown prior to today.
The temperature data doesn’t support this theory.
Of course, other reasonable explanations are possible.
Meanwhile, Portuguese officials stress there is no evidence of a cyberattack and that the cause is still under investigation. Power is slowly being restored to the region.
By Monday night, 50% of power had been restored across Spain, according to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. While Portuguese energy provider REN said electricity had been restored to 750,000 customers.But a state of emergency remained in place, with regions able to request the special status.Sánchez said the cause of the outage was still being investigated and warned against speculation, while Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said there was “no indication” of a cyber attack.
But I must express my gratitude to Spain and Portugal for demonstrating the realities of a fully operational Net Zero system. Hopefully, other regions will heed this lesson.
However, it must be noted, this could have been a continent-wide incident.
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