Electricity returning to Spain over 99 % and completely in Portugal – Liberation

Electricity returns Tuesday in Spain and Portugal after long hours of a power cut « Exceptional »of unknown origin, which sowed chaos throughout the Iberian Peninsula. In the streets of different districts of Madrid, the return of the current was often accompanied in the evening of applause and cries of joy of the inhabitants, after a long day without electricity, but also most often without the Internet and without a mobile phone.

Around 6 am, 99 % of the national electricity supply was restored in mainland Spain, announced the manager of the REE network. In Portugal, the electrical network is now « Perfectly stabilized ». According to the manager, the network has been restored to « 100 % »and all households have again access to electrical energy. « All 6.4 million customers are provided »said the Portuguese government in a statement.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez did not risk giving an explanation on the causes of this blackout which started at 12:33 on Monday. « No hypothesis » is « Discarded »,, He hammered at a press conference. « Never » There had been such « collapse » of the Spanish network, he continued, adding that « 15 gigawatts » electricity had been « Suddenly lost » on the Spanish network, all « In just five seconds ». « Fifteen gigawatts correspond approximately to 60 % of demand » In electricity from Spain at that time of the day, the head of government described. His Portuguese counterpart Luis Montenegro, for his part, mentioned a « Serious and unprecedented situation » whose origin is to be found « Probably in Spain ».

The gradual return to normal was good news on both sides of the border, after a long day spent juggling the difficultiesbetween closed metros, saturated bus, blocked trains and extremely difficult communications.

In Lisbon, « I was in the office when all of a sudden my computer died »testified to AFP Edgar Parreira, a 34 -year -old advertiser. « At the beginning we thought it was a problem in the building, then we started calling our loved ones and we understood that it was the whole city and then that it also happened in Spain »he added.

In the center of Madrid, inhabitants and tourists gathered in front of the facades of chic hotels or banks, to enjoy a few moments of free wifi still fueled by generators.

At the end of the day, thousands of people had to patiently cross the city, trying to go home on foot. The major arteries of the capital were prey to monster traffic jams, in the midst of which zigzagued pedestrians trying to make their way.

Same scenes in Barcelona, ​​where many residents went down to the street, their phone in hand, in search of a hypothetical network. Long improvised lines have stretched several hundred meters at bus stops. « Look, the tail makes a thousand turns »desperate in Madrid Rosario Pena, a 39-year-old fast food worker. « I have already taken an hour and a half to get here, and I don’t know how much I still have to my house … »

A few hours later, tricolor fires and stores of the shops have enlightened again, a sign of an improvement in the situation, at least in the Spanish capital.

In the Madrid region alone, 286 operations took place to help people trapped inside elevators, according to regional authorities.

Tuesday morning, three trains were still blocked in Spain with passengers on board, according to the Minister of Transport Oscar Puente.

High-speed rail traffic is to resume normally on Tuesday morning on several main lines, including Madrid-Barcelona and Madrid-Valence, but remains interrupted on others like Barcelona-Alicante and between Madrid and Galicia (northwest), wrote on X Oscar Puente.

Air traffic has also been very disrupted, especially at the Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon airports, according to the European Heaven Eurocontrol surveillance organization. But the Spanish Prime Minister stressed in the evening that only 344 flights out of 6,000 scheduled in the country on Monday had been canceled.

“There are no insecurity problems. Our hospital system works properly »assured Pedro Sanchez on Monday, calling citizens « To act with responsibility and good citizenship ». And in fact, despite chaos and confusion, the atmosphere remained calm and good -natured in the streets of Madrid throughout the breakdown.

The supply was partially restored thanks to interconnections with France and Morocco, and gas and hydroelectric power plants have « Summer reactivated throughout the country »according to Mr. Sanchez. The Spanish nuclear power plants have been stopped, a normal security procedure in the event of an electricity cut.

In Europe, a failure of the German network on November 4, 2006 had plunged into the dark 10 million people, half of which in France and the rest in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, for almost an hour. Three years earlier, all of Italy, except Sardinia, had been deprived of electricity on September 28, 2003.

Update at 7:50 a.m., with the new figure of 99 % of electricity restored

Update at 9:29 a.m., with the situation in updated Portugal