Spain-wide power outage sparks chaos as residents scramble for cash and signal

Spain-wide power outage halts transport, cripples communication, and plunges cities into turmoil.

People wait at a bus stop in downtown Madrid as subways and trains remain out of service due to a massive power outage in Spain on April 28, 2025. Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP

By Anna Fadiah and Hayu Andini

A massive Spain-wide power outage on Monday triggered scenes of confusion and panic across the country, as millions of people were left stranded, disconnected, and desperate for information. The blackout, which also affected neighboring Portugal, disrupted transport systems, jammed traffic, and overwhelmed city centers with crowds unable to use their mobile phones or access the internet.

The Spain-wide power outage hit during the busy midday hours, immediately plunging metro systems, banks, and offices into darkness. Carlos Condori, a 19-year-old construction worker, was riding the Madrid metro when the power failed, causing the train to halt unexpectedly.

"The light went out and the carriage stopped," he said outside a metro station in central Madrid. "People were stunned, because this had never happened in Spain," Condori told AFP. "There's no phone coverage, I can't call my family, my parents, nothing: I can't even go to work."

Across major cities like Madrid and Barcelona, the blackout left traffic lights dead, leading to gridlocked intersections and a cacophony of sirens and horns. Police officers attempted to manually direct traffic as drivers sat in confusion, trying to navigate through the chaos without functional signals.

Daily life grinds to a halt amid the Spain-wide power outage

At Madrid’s Cibeles Square, one of the city's busiest hubs, overwhelmed office workers flooded the streets, clutching their non-functioning laptops and smartphones. Many residents expressed gratitude that they had not been trapped in elevators, while others found themselves scrambling for cash as card payment systems went offline.

Marina Sierra, a 16-year-old student, was trying to find her way home after her school in Madrid was evacuated due to smoke from the building, likely caused by electrical issues linked to the Spain-wide power outage.

"The building we were in was giving off smoke, they had to evacuate us quickly.... I'm shocked because everything is totally out of control," Sierra said, trying to call her father but failing to get any mobile signal.

Similarly, in Barcelona, transport services were thrown into disarray. Students and commuters were left stranded with limited public transportation options. Laia Montserrat, a student from a town one hour outside the city, said she was giving a presentation when the lights suddenly cut out.

"As the internet wasn't coming back, they told us to go home... but there weren't trains either," she explained. "Now we don't know what to do."

Tourists were not spared from the chaos. Leonor Abecasis, a Portuguese consultant visiting Barcelona, was shopping when she was suddenly enveloped by darkness. Waiting outside, she admitted feeling anxious about her return flight to Lisbon later that evening.

"We're waiting for the electricity to come back," Abecasis said, adding she was "a little" worried about making it home as flight operations were also disrupted.

Responses vary from panic to pragmatism during Spain blackout

Despite the widespread disruption, some Spaniards took a more philosophical approach. Pilar Lopez, a 53-year-old administrator working in higher education, reflected on how much modern society depends on electricity for daily tasks.

"We've suffered a pandemic, I don't think this is worse," Lopez said. "Maybe we should go back to the beginnings and not depend so much on electricity in some things."

Lopez noted how the Spain-wide power outage exposed vulnerabilities in digital dependence, especially for payments and communication.

"I can't even pay because my mobile isn't working. Sometimes you have to be a bit more analogue: this proves it," she said.

Meanwhile, banks across Spain saw long queues forming as people rushed to withdraw cash, anticipating that card systems and ATMs could remain down for an extended period. With internet connectivity crippled, most banking apps were inaccessible, adding to people's frustration.

According to Netblocks, a website that monitors internet disruptions, web connectivity in Spain fell to just 17 percent of normal levels during the blackout, highlighting the deep impact the Spain-wide power outage had on the country’s digital infrastructure.

Authorities scramble to restore order and investigate cause

Spain's national and local governments moved quickly to assess the situation. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez convened an emergency meeting, while the European Commission said it was in contact with authorities in both Spain and Portugal.

So far, officials have ruled out a cyberattack. European Council President Antonio Costa posted on social media platform X that "there are no indications of any cyberattack."

Eduardo Prieto, the head of operations at Spain's grid operator Red Electrica, told reporters that while the exact cause remained unknown, restoration efforts were underway.

"We cannot speculate right now on the causes of the blackout," Prieto said, "but we are doing everything to identify its origin." He added that full restoration of power could take between six to ten hours, "if all goes well."

By late Monday, Red Electrica confirmed that electricity was returning to some areas in northern, southern, and western Spain, although many regions remained without full service.

Portugal’s national energy operator REN confirmed the blackout also affected the entire Iberian Peninsula, home to roughly 58.5 million people. The operator noted that predicting when full service would resume was "impossible" at that point.

Broader impact and historical context of massive power outages

Air travel was also impacted, with Eurocontrol, Europe’s air traffic management agency, reporting disruptions to flights at Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon airports. Southwest France experienced brief disruptions too, though French grid operator RTE said service there was quickly restored.

Hospitals in Spain activated backup generators to maintain critical care units. However, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that some non-emergency medical services were severely disrupted due to the outage.

Massive blackouts are not unique to Spain and Portugal. Similar events have struck other countries in recent years, including a major blackout in Tunisia in September 2023, another in Sri Lanka in August 2020, and a historic outage that left both Argentina and Uruguay without power in June 2019. One of the largest blackouts occurred in India in July 2012, affecting hundreds of millions of people.

The Spain-wide power outage serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of modern infrastructure and the immediate, wide-reaching effects of losing electricity in an increasingly digital world.