Spain suffered a historic blackout as 15 gigawatts disappeared in 5 seconds

Spain has been facing a significant blackout since 12:32 AM, with a sudden loss of 15 gigawatts (GW) of electricity generation in just five seconds, which represents approximately 60% of the country’s demand at that moment.

According to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, 99% of the electricity supply has been restored as of 8 AM today, showing significant progress in recovery, which was at 35% at 8:35 PM yesterday.

The causes of the blackout are still under investigation. Sánchez reiterated that specialists are analyzing all possibilities, although the European Union has ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the supply failure.

The EU rules out a cyberattack in the unprecedented blackout in Spain

This unprecedented incident has highlighted the vulnerability of the electrical system, where wind and photovoltaic power plants disconnected from the grid upon detecting a voltage dip, thus contributing to the loss of generation.

The recovery of the supply has not been uniform; yesterday there were autonomous communities that had reached up to 97% restoration, while others barely exceeded 15%.

In light of this situation, the Government has implemented level three of civil protection in several regions, recommending that educational centers remain open but without teaching activities.

Pedro Sánchez, in his appearance, emphasized that preventive measures are being taken to assist those municipalities where electricity may take longer to return. Today, energy has already been restored across Spanish territory by 99.95%.