Spanish government considers 'strange' that 60% of power disappeared and does not rule out 'any possibility'

The Spanish government considers it "very strange" that at 12:33 pm, and in a matter of only 5 seconds, a total of 15 GW of energy disappeared - 60% of the total grid at that time.

Authorities do not rule out "any possibility" on the causes of the blackout at the moment. 

Sources from the Spanish cabinet point out that a phenomenon of this nature has never happened before.

While the government is investigating the causes and authorities are "working to try and recover energy by Tuesday," although there is no signal of a shortage.

Sánchez anticipates that power will be recovered during the night and that rail service will resume in the morning. 

Regarding communications, the PM pointed out that there are outages due to the lack of supply to antennas, but operators hope to recover normality in the coming hours.

Air traffic saw some delays and cancellations due to control towers losing power, but Sánchez said the vast majority are already operational again. The Socialist leader added that 344 of 6,000 flights scheduled throughout all of Spain were canceled on Monday.

On the roads, beyond traffic jams, there have been no incidents reported. 

Train companies and emergency response units helped 35,000 passengers trapped in more than 100 trains throughout the day. By the time Sánchez spoke, shortly before 11 pm, he said there were still 11 trains with passengers trapped inside pending recovery.

In industry, he pointed out that many factories will recover activity tomorrow, although some will take longer.

The PM also highlighted that financial markets "closed well," demonstrating the "confidence" in the Spanish economy, he said.

Shortly before Sánchez spoke, Spain's Red Eléctrica said that 48.2% of the grid was recovered.

Eduardo Prieto, director of operations, said that during the coming hours, authorities will be able to recover the system.