BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A major power outage hit Spain and Portugal on Monday, including their capitals, knocking out subway networks, phone lines, traffic lights and ATM machines.
The Portuguese Cabinet convened an emergency meeting at the prime minister’s residence, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Red Eléctrica to follow efforts at restoring power to the grid.
The countries have a combined population of over 50 million people. It was not immediately clear how many were affected.
It is rare to have such a widespread outage across the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish generator Red Eléctrica said the incident is being assessed.
Portugal’s government said the outage appeared to stem from problems outside the country, an official told national news agency Lusa.
“It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It’s still being ascertained,” Cabinet Minister Leitão Amaro was quoted as saying.
Portuguese distributor E-Redes said the outage was due to “a problem with the European electricity system,” according to Portuguese newspaper Expresso. The company said it was compelled to cut power in specific areas to stabilize the network, according to Expresso.
Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE said a major power outage hit several regions of the country just after midday local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain’s parliament in Madrid and subway stations across the country in the dark.
A graph on Spain’s electricity network website showing demand across the country indicated a steep drop around 12:15 p.m. from 27,500MW to near 15,000MW.
Portugal’s E-Redes said parts of France also were affected.
A couple of hours later, Spain’s electricity network operator said it was recovering power in the north and south of the peninsula, which would help to progressively restore the electricity supply nationwide.
In Portugal, a country of some 10.6 million people, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country.
Video aired on Spanish television showed people evacuating metro stations in Madrid and empty stations with trains stopped in Barcelona.
Spain’s traffic department is asking citizens to avoid using their cars as much as possible due to the power outage, which has affected traffic lights and electrical road signage.
In Terrassa, an industrial town 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Barcelona, stores selling generators were out of stock after people lined up to buy them.
Portuguese police placed more officers on duty to direct traffic and cope with increased requests for help, including from people trapped in elevators.
Portuguese hospitals and other emergency services switched to generators.
Portugal’s National Authority for Emergencies and Civil Protection said backup power systems were operating.
Several Lisbon subway cars were evacuated, reports said. Also in Portugal, courts stopped work and ATMs and electronic payment systems were affected. Traffic lights in Lisbon stopped working.
It was not possible to make calls on mobile phone networks, though some apps were working.
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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
