Spain reveals cause of massive blackout that cancelled flights and left 80,000 stranded
The outage, which left tens of millions without power, was triggered by a chain reaction of small grid failures concentrated in southern Spain, according to Spain's Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen.
Speaking at a press conference, Ms Aagesen ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack.
She cited "the poor planning" by grid operators as a contributing factor, as they failed to find a replacement for a power plant intended to balance power fluctuations.
The blackout on 28 April began shortly after 12.30pm and lasted through the evening, disrupting businesses, transit systems, cellular networks, internet connectivity, and other critical infrastructure.
Within five seconds, Spain lost 15gigawatts of electricity, approximately 60 per cent of its supply. Portugal, connected to Spain's grid, also experienced a blackout, while island territories were unaffected.
About 500 flights were cancelled, affecting 80,000 passengers, and many travellers slept in train stations as they were unable to get home.
Power was fully restored by the early hours of the following day.
The government report included analysts from Spain's national security agencies, which concluded, according to the minister, there were no indications of cyber-sabotage by foreign actors.
The only solid information made public shortly after the system went down came from Spain's grid operator Red Eléctrica, which had narrowed down the source of the outage to two separate incidents in southern Spain where substations had failed.
In the weeks following the blackout, citizens and experts were left wondering what triggered the event in a region not known for power outages and igniting a fierce debate about whether Spain's high levels of renewable power had something to do with the grid failing.
Spain is at the forefront of Europe 's transition to renewable energy, having generated nearly 57 per cent of its electricity in 2024 from renewable energy sources like wind, hydropower and solar. The country is also phasing out its nuclear plants.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pushed back against such speculation and defended renewables.
He asked for patience and said that his government would not 'deviate a single millimetre' from its energy transition plans, which include a goal of generating 81 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
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'For Germany, the recognition of a Palestinian state comes more at the end of that process. But such a process must begin now.' AFP reports that Wadephul said that the recent UN conference on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - boycotted by the US and Israel - showed that 'Israel is finding itself increasingly in the minority'. 12.16pm CEST 12:16 Reuters has reported on the desperate situation in Gaza. In a makeshift tent on a Gazan beach, three-month-old Muntaha's grandmother grinds up chickpeas into the tiniest granules she can to form a paste to feed the infant, knowing it will cause her to cry in pain, in a desperate race to keep the baby from starving. 'If the baby could speak, she would scream at us, asking what we are putting into her stomach,' her aunt, Abir Hamouda said. Muntaha grimaced and squirmed as her grandmother fed her the paste with a syringe. Muntaha's family is one of many in Gaza facing dire choices to try to feed babies, especially those below the age of six months who cannot process solid food. Infant formula is scarce after a plummet in aid access to Gaza. Many women cannot breastfeed due to malnourishment, while other babies are separated from their mothers due to displacement, injury or, in Muntaha's case, death. Her family says the baby's mother was hit by a bullet while pregnant, gave birth prematurely while unconscious in intensive care, and died a few weeks later. The director of the Shifa Hospital described such a case in a Facebook post on April 27, four days after Muntaha was born. 'I am terrified about the fate of the baby,' said her grandmother, Nemah Hamouda. 'We named her after her she can survive and live long, but we are so afraid, we hear children and adults die every day of hunger.' Muntaha now weighs about 3.5 kilograms, her family said, barely more than half of what a full-term baby her age would normally weigh. She suffers stomach problems like vomiting and diarrhoea after feeding. Health officials, aid workers and Gazan families told Reuters many families are feeding infants herbs and tea boiled in water, or grinding up bread or sesame. Humanitarian agencies also reported cases of parents boiling leaves in water, eating animal feed and grinding sand into flour.
