Power outage disrupts transport in Spain, Portugal

Spain’s electricity grid operator, Red Eléctrica, said it was working with energy companies to restore power after a widespread outage hit large parts of Spain and Portugal earlier on Sunday.

Radio network Cadena SER reported heavy traffic congestion in central Madrid as traffic lights stopped working due to the extensive blackout.

Other cities across Spain and Portugal were also affected, with power cuts reported in Barcelona, Seville, and Pamplona. Air traffic operations were reportedly running at half capacity across Spain, according to The Sun newspaper.

Cadena SER said parts of Madrid’s subway network were being evacuated. Spanish railway operator Renfe announced that the national electricity network had gone down entirely at 11:30 GMT (2:30 p.m. local time).

In Portugal, the outage impacted Lisbon and its surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country.

Portuguese electricity distributor E-Redes attributed the blackout to a failure in the European energy system and said it had been forced to cut supply in some areas to maintain grid stability, according to Expresso newspaper.