Blackout in the Iberian Peninsula: Cyberattack ruled out, but causes remain under investigation

SAARBRÜCKEN, GERMANY. Last Monday (28), millions of people were surprised and affected by a failure in the European electrical system, more specifically in Spain, Portugal and parts of southern France. So far, authorities in the countries involved are trying to determine the main cause of the blackout, but they guarantee that the possibility of a cyber attack has been ruled out.

In a statement, the Spanish electricity grid operator, Red Eléctrica de España (REE), France’s electricity grid operator REE said that around 60% of national demand was affected by a sudden loss of 15 GW in a short period of just 5 seconds, causing a rare blackout in the regions. REE, the electricity network in France, says that a connection failure may have been responsible for the collapse in the electricity system, which consequently affected areas close to the border.

Possible causes

A Réseau de Transport d'Electricité (RTE), The French electricity grid operator confirmed that some areas had suffered partial power cuts, but assured that the supply was later restored, without permanent damage. The operator said in a press release that a blackout of such proportions is extremely rare, but that it has occurred in previous years in Europe: France 1978 and 1987, Italy 2003, Germany 2006, the Balkans 2024.

The European Commission also spoke out, stating that it is in contact with the national authorities of Spain and Portugal, as well as with the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E), to understand the underlying causes and impact of the situation.

So far, investigations are ongoing, and several hypotheses are being analyzed. Possible causes of the blackout include technical failures, atmospheric phenomena and even cyberattacks, although no concrete evidence has been found to support these theories so far.

The Prime Minister of Portugal, Luís Montenegro, publicly ruled out the possibility of cyber attacks, stating that the incident was not caused by any type of attack on the electrical infrastructure. The Minister of the Presidency of Portugal, António Leitão Amaro, also stated that the causes of the blackout may have originated outside Portugal, mainly in Spain.

Causes ruled out

During the investigation, some causes were ruled out. Extreme weather phenomena, such as sudden changes in temperature or atmospheric events, were investigated, but AEMET (Spain's State Meteorological Agency) stated that there was no unusual event that could have caused the blackout. The possibility of failures caused by forest fires or other natural disasters was also ruled out.

European Union

A European Union and national authorities are working to fully understand the failure and implement improvements to the power grid system. European Commission expressed its intention to evaluate the findings of the investigations and take steps to strengthen the electrical infrastructure in order to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

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