European officials probe cause of hourslong power outages in Spain, Portugal

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Monday that a problem in the European grid he described as a "strong oscillation" led to the huge power outrage that struck his country, Portugal and parts of France, but that the cause was still being determined.

The blackout brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill Monday, halting subway and railway trains, cutting phone service and shutting down traffic lights and ATMs for millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula.

Sánchez asked the public to refrain from speculation and said no theory about the cause of the outage had been discarded. He thanked the governments of France and Morocco, where energy was being pulled from to restore power to north and southern Spain.

Spanish power distributor Red Eléctrica earlier said that restoring power to large parts of the country could take six to 10 hours. 

Eduardo Prieto, head of operations at Red Eléctrica, told journalists it was unprecedented, calling the event "exceptional and extraordinary," but the company declined to speculate on the causes of the blackout.

Teresa Ribera, European Commission executive vice-president in charge of promoting clean energy, said there were no indications of a cyberattack in Monday's power outage, in comments to Spanish journalists in Brussels. Ribera described the outage as "one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times."

The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre also issued a statement saying there was no sign the outage was due to a cyberattack. 

Spain and Portugal have a combined population of about 60 million people. It was not immediately clear how many were affected. It is rare to have such a widespread outage across the Iberian Peninsula. 

Spain's Canary Islands, Balearic Islands and the territories of Ceuta and Melilla, located across the Mediterranean in Africa, were not impacted by the outage.

People rush to buy generators

A graph on Spain's electricity network website showing demand across the country indicated a steep drop around 12:15 p.m. local time, from 27,500 megawatts to near 15,000 megawatts.

Video aired on Spanish television showed people evacuating metro stations in Madrid and empty stations with trains stopped in Barcelona.

Spain's traffic department is asking citizens to avoid using their cars as much as possible due to the power outage, which has affected traffic lights and electrical road signage.

In Terrassa, an industrial town 50 kilometres from Barcelona, stores selling generators were out of stock after people lined up to buy them.

Portugal's electricity distributor E-Redes said parts of France, which shares its southwest border with Spain, also were affected.

In Portugal, a country of some 10.6 million people, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country. Portuguese police placed more officers on duty to direct traffic and cope with increased requests for help, including from people trapped in elevators.

Portuguese hospitals and other emergency services switched to generators. Gas stations stopped working and trains stopped running.

Portugal's National Authority for Emergencies and Civil Protection said backup power systems were operating.