99 percent of Spain’s power supply restored after blackout, authorities say

Power in Spain and Portugal has been restored after a massive blackout paralyzed most of the Iberian Peninsula on Monday.

Spanish operator Red Eléctrica announced early Tuesday that more than 99 percent of the electricity supply in the country was back up and running, and all the substations in the network have voltage. 

“99.16% of peninsular demand has already been recovered with a production of 21,265 MW. All substations on the transmission grid are operational. We continue with the restoration work,” the company said.

Despite the progress, a state of emergency will remain in place Tuesday while recovery efforts continue.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is set to meet the National Security Council on Tuesday morning, which will be chaired by King Felipe VI.

The blackout, which began early Monday afternoon, disrupted key infrastructure across both Spain and Portugal, affecting public transportation, traffic signals, hospitals, manufacturing plants, digital payment systems, as well as nuclear power facilities.

“This has never happened before,” Sánchez said in a national address on Monday evening. “We don't have conclusive information on the causes, and I ask the public not to speculate,” he added.

Preliminary assessments suggest that the outage may have been triggered by a major imbalance in the electrical grid, but investigations are ongoing.