Power has been almost fully restored across Spain following a major outage, with about 99.16% of electricity supply back online as of 6 am (0400 GMT), grid operator Red Eléctrica said on Tuesday.
In neighbouring Portugal, electricity had also been restored to most households, broadcaster RTP reported early Tuesday. Around 95% of the country’s 6.5 million customers were back on the grid, RTP reported, citing grid operator E-Redes.
Millions of people in Spain and Portugal were left in the dark on Monday as the power went out, communication networks were disrupted, traffic lights stopped working and lifts became stranded.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in a televised address on Monday evening, promised that power would be back to normal by Tuesday. He did not mention the cause of the blackout but stated that no possibilities were being ruled out.
People take shelter at Atocha train station, where they will spend the night after the electrical blackout. Power started returning to parts of the Iberian peninsula late on Monday after a huge outage brought most of Spain and Portugal to a standstill, grounding planes, halting public transport, and forcing hospitals to suspend routine operations. Alejandro Martínez Vélez/EUROPA PRESS/dpa
A woman lights up inside her house with the help of candles and battery-powered lighting during the electrical blackout. Power started returning to parts of the Iberian peninsula late on Monday after a huge outage brought most of Spain and Portugal to a standstill, grounding planes, halting public transport, and forcing hospitals to suspend routine operations. A. Pérez Meca/EUROPA PRESS/dpa