Severe Power Outage Hits Europe: Blackouts Across Spain and Other Countries Disrupting Planes to Metro Services

Madrid/Lisbon (The Uttam Hindu): Many countries in Europe suddenly faced a major power crisis on Monday, causing a severe blackout in many areas including Spain and Portugal. Due to this unexpected crisis, operations from air services to metro were badly affected and major cities like Madrid to Lisbon were plunged into darkness during the afternoon. Spain and Portugal have immediately implemented emergency protocols to deal with this emergency. At present, the cause of this major blackout is being thoroughly investigated, and initially a cyber attack is also suspected behind it.

Spain's national grid operator 'Red Eléctrica' issued a statement saying that work is being done on a war footing in collaboration with energy sector companies to restore power supply across the country. At the same time, Portugal's grid operator 'E-Redes' clarified that this crisis occurred due to a problem in the European power grid. In the initial investigation, voltage imbalance is believed to be the main reason for this widespread power outage, which crippled the entire power distribution system.

The blackout had a direct and serious impact on normal life. Traffic lights stopped working, causing chaos and jams on the roads. Metro services came to a complete halt, causing a lot of inconvenience to passengers. Although backup generators were started in hospitals, the authorities have instructed the hospital staff to turn off computers and adopt other measures to save electricity so that essential services can continue.

It is currently unclear how long it will take to restore power and how long the crisis will last. The Spanish government has set up a crisis management committee given the seriousness of the situation.

Spanish authorities have not ruled out the possibility of a cyber attack behind the blackout and this aspect is being thoroughly investigated. It is worth noting that major blackouts have occurred in Europe earlier also due to minor technical glitches. In 2003, the whole of Italy was plunged into darkness after a tree fell in Switzerland and damaged the power line. Therefore, this time too the authorities are investigating both the angles of technical problem and cyber attack.

Given the seriousness of the situation, the Spanish administration has appealed to the public not to call emergency services unnecessarily, as telephone centers are already overloaded with a large number of calls. This major power crisis has once again underlined the need for better energy system integration between European countries, which the European Commission has been stressing for years, but progress in this direction has been slow. The current crisis has forced Europe to think seriously about this important issue.