Morning opening: How did it occur?
Jakub Krupa
Lights flickered again to life throughout most of Spain and Portugal after a large blackout hit the Iberian peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and elevators whereas hundreds of thousands misplaced telephone and web protection.

As of Tuesday morning, each Spain and Portugal reported energy provides virtually again to regular with the community stabilised after the most important energy minimize in Europe’s current historical past.
On Monday evening, many went to mattress in darkness, whereas others posted movies on-line celebrating the gradual return of energy after many hours off-grid.
However for a continent so keen to speak up its efforts on power safety – with many leaders attending a high-level summit on this solely final week – there will probably be many persistent questions that want pressing solutions.
How do you so simply get a blackout affecting some 60 million individuals? What precipitated it? And, crucially, can or not it’s prevented from occurring at this – or bigger – scale ever once more?
Many can even examine the mis- and disinformation on the causes or the culprits behind the blackout that managed to get traction in the course of the blackout, with each Spanish and Portuguese governments pressured to concern direct warning in opposition to speculations and stories on-line.
Regardless of the power again on this morning, the disruption is more likely to stay for a bit longer, as trains and planes are out of place and different processes are disrupted.
I’ll carry you all the newest.
It’s Tuesday, 29 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa right here, and that is Europe Stay.
Good morning.
Key occasions
The Spanish self-employed may have misplaced as much as €1.3bn on account of yesterday’s energy minimize, the Asociación de Trabajadores Autónomos estimated.
In a report carried by the Spanish information company EFE, the group stated that “today is still a difficult day” with some reporting connectivity and transport points.
It stated the largest affect was felt within the hospitality and retail sectors.
Portuguese media are reporting that the Lisbon Metro was nonetheless down earlier at this time because the nation reels off yesterday’s blackout.
Service is predicted to be steadily resuming all through the morning with first traces anticipated to be again up by now, however the standing replace monitoring device on their web site doesn’t appear to be working.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez stated this morning that 99.95% of power demand has been restored in Spain, with 100% of substations again operational, as he headed for one more assembly of the nationwide safety council.
“Thank you to all citizens for once again being an example of responsibility and civic spirit,” he stated.
The Portuguese authorities can be anticipated to fulfill later this morning. It earlier points a brief social media replace confirming the return of largely regular operations.
Morning opening: How did it occur?

Jakub Krupa
Lights flickered again to life throughout most of Spain and Portugal after a large blackout hit the Iberian peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and elevators whereas hundreds of thousands misplaced telephone and web protection.
As of Tuesday morning, each Spain and Portugal reported energy provides virtually again to regular with the community stabilised after the most important energy minimize in Europe’s current historical past.
On Monday evening, many went to mattress in darkness, whereas others posted movies on-line celebrating the gradual return of energy after many hours off-grid.
However for a continent so keen to speak up its efforts on power safety – with many leaders attending a high-level summit on this solely final week – there will probably be many persistent questions that want pressing solutions.
How do you so simply get a blackout affecting some 60 million individuals? What precipitated it? And, crucially, can or not it’s prevented from occurring at this – or bigger – scale ever once more?
Many can even examine the mis- and disinformation on the causes or the culprits behind the blackout that managed to get traction in the course of the blackout, with each Spanish and Portuguese governments pressured to concern direct warning in opposition to speculations and stories on-line.
Regardless of the power again on this morning, the disruption is more likely to stay for a bit longer, as trains and planes are out of place and different processes are disrupted.
I’ll carry you all the newest.
It’s Tuesday, 29 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa right here, and that is Europe Stay.
Good morning.