Massive Blackout in Spain and Portugal: Why It Didn’t Spread Across Europe

On April 28, 2025, the Iberian Peninsula experienced one of its largest blackouts, leaving both Spain and Portugal without power for hours. The outage also affected parts of France. Factors such as technical issues, cyber-attacks, and challenges related to increased renewable energy usage were considered. This widespread blackout highlights a series of problems within the system that keeps Europe’s lights on. Neglected power grids, transformers, and circuit breakers are now at the forefront as energy companies worry about European policy over recent years. The EU has been avoiding Russian imports following the invasion of Ukraine and is moving away from fossil fuels toward cleaner alternatives. By Tuesday, officials had not identified the unusual incident in the power grid as a potential cause, almost ruling out the possibility of a cyber-attack. As soon as the lights came back on, the blame game began. Questions about what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again are crucial, as Europe increasingly relies on electricity—and, by extension, its electric grids. The role of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power was scrutinized, with Spain and Portugal serving as examples of the EU’s plan to replace fossil fuels. Although experts and EU officials tried not to blame renewables for the incident, the far-right Spanish party used the blackout to criticize the government’s energy transition plans. The blackout did not spread because the EU network is designed to protect against such situations, automatically disconnecting when instability occurs. However, this does not mean the network is immune to power outages. In 2006, millions in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, and Spain lost power after a transmission line was disconnected to facilitate a cruise ship’s journey. Just last year, extreme heat caused blackouts affecting Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro, and parts of Croatia. Interconnected power grids help avoid outages, but as electricity demand rises due to the EU’s energy transition and growing sectors like artificial intelligence, networks must be strengthened. A full blackout in the future could severely disrupt daily life.