It could take between six and ten hours to restore power to the Spanish electricity grid. Eduardo Prieto, operations manager for the Spanish electricity grid operator Red Electrica, said this at a press conference in connection with a massive outage on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency.
The restoration of power will depend on several factors, but simulations of the process show that it could take six to ten hours before everyone has power again. The operations manager also calls the outage historic.
- Never in history have we had such a widespread outage as this, he says.
Power has begun to return in the north and south of the country. The operations manager does not know the cause of the outage, which hit Spain and Portugal as well as parts of France on Monday. He also urged citizens not to "speculate" about the cause of the power outage, writes the AFP news agency.
The outage has caused traffic chaos in the Spanish capital, Madrid, because traffic lights are out of order. Parts of the subway system are also being evacuated. Spanish airports are also affected by disruptions as a result of the outage. Madrid's mayor is asking residents to avoid unnecessary travel during the outage.
- I ask all residents of Madrid to keep their travel to an absolute minimum. If possible, they should stay where they are. We want to keep all roads clear, says Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida according to the BBC.
The mayor also asks that residents only call the emergency center if it is "really urgent".
Spanish trains have been put out of service due to the power outage. Spanish railway company Renfe announced at 12:30 p.m. that there had been a nationwide power outage and that no trains were running. Portuguese grid operator Ren confirmed that electricity had been cut across the Iberian Peninsula, which consists of Spain and Portugal.
The Spanish prime minister has called an emergency meeting due to the national blackout, AFP reports.
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