Power outage across Catalonia and Spain, with Catalan counties recovering electricity

Catalonia has been suffering a major power outage since Monday at noon, affecting all services, including road signs, banks, hospitals, and other spaces, all left without electricity.

The outage's cause is unknown, but people have remained without power for at least seven hours.

Spain's electrical network reported that it has begun recovering electricity in the northern and southern parts of the peninsula.

Authorities expect that services will be restored in between 6 and 10 hours. They say that there "has been a very strong oscillation in the networks," which caused it "to be disconnected from the European electrical system."

Around 6:30 pm on Monday, authorities estimated that 26% of electricity had been recovered in Catalonia.

Endesa reported that some sites in the Catalan counties of Osona, Vallès Oriental, Ripollès, Garrotxa, Selva, and Gironès are starting to recover power after the outage.

When the power outage happened in Catalonia and in Spain, it became clear that it had also affected Portugal, Andorra, and the southern areas of France with similar force.

Electricity suddenly halved 

When the power outage happened, electricity in Spain almost halved, based on Red Eléctrica data. Power descended from 27.000 MW to 15.970 MW. 

Meanwhile, the Repsol industrial complex in Tarragona said that despite the power outage, their security protocols did not affect society's security.

At the time of the power outage, the company announced that they had activated "a safe service halt."

Nuclear plants run on diesel generators

The Spanish nuclear plants have notified the Spanish Nuclear Security Council (CSN) that the power plants are recovering electricity from outside sources, and that they are preparing their systems to possibly be connected to the state-owned electrical network, per their protocols. 

The power plants remain in a state of pre-emergency alert.

But the CSN assured that the outage had not had an impact on nuclear plant workers or the environment. 

“Considering this unforeseen situation, the reactors of the working power plants, including the Catalan Ascó I and II, and Vandellòs II, automatically switched off and the diesel generators kicked in, which keeps the power plants in safe conditions,” said the CSN around 3 pm on Monday.

Avoid journeys, planes operating

During the afternoon, the Catalan traffic agency urged citizens to avoid making any unnecessary journeys, in a social media post.

At the same time, the agency said that there were no major issues on roads such as highways and national roads outside towns.

Barcelona airport also assured that operations would not be affected as it had its own power supply, according to Civil Protection.

The Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat train network and Renfe's lines "evacuated" some affected trains.

And later in the evening, Spain's transport minister Òscar Puente wrote on the social media X that it mid- and long-distance trains would not go back to work on Monday.

The PortAventura amusement park halted all rides and reported that everyone was able to get off the roller coasters safely.

Emergency meetings

The Catalan president, Salvador Illa, called an emergency cabinet meeting in the Catalan government's headquarters to tackle the power outage.

The interior ministry also set up an emergency meeting to study the situation, and authorities set up an emergency management center in Barcelona.

Núria Parlon, Catalan interior minister, said that schools would remain open for parents to pick up children whenever they were available.

She also said that the government activated more police officers.

Pedro Sánchez reaction

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed the nation amid a massive power outage at 6:00 pm at the La Moncloa, the Spanish government's headquarters, on Monday.

He said that, himself nor the government, "does not rule out any hypothesis," as there "is no conclusive information of the causes of this power outage," he told in a televised statement almost six hours after the electrical cut started.

"It is better not to speculate," he added.

During his speech, Sánchez said that there are still "critical hours" ahead for telecommunications and said that they are working to recover service "soon."

Sánchez informed that the National Security cabinet approved the Level 3 of emergency in the regions of Madrid, Extremadura, and Andalusia, as regional governments had requested it.

Level 3 of emergency means that the Spanish cabinet is taking over civil powers to manage the region.