What we know about the blackout in Europe

In this article, I will be talking about the recent blackout that happened across Europe, its impact, possible causes, and how you could prepare for another one. 

The Blackout 

On Monday 28th of April 2025, a day most would think would be like any other, turned into a catastrophic event for Europe very quickly, at 10:33 (GMT) the power across several countries with the most affected being  Portugal, and  Spain and some reports of brief outages in the south-west of France, as well as small zones of Italy,  and Germany which quickly recovered and in Andorra a few locals found themselves without power for some parts of their day. 

The Impact 

The broader impact involved the traffic lights, and metros, and commuter rails to stop working as well as basic services such as gasoline pumps, pharmacies, supermarkets, ATM’s, elevators, coolers, freezers, and most internet providers immediately shutting down, meanwhile important buildings such as hospitals switched to emergency generators. 

Portugal 

Lisbon Airport closed at around 12:00 (GMT), although flights were allowed to take off from around 20:38 (GMT) and other airports switched to generator mode. A state-owned water company named “Águas de Portugal” told people to be moderate in water usage. An emergency meeting by the prime minister declared an energy crisis that was set to last until 22:59 (GMT). Thankfully, electricity was gradually restored starting at approximately 16:00 (GMT) and finished by the 29th of April 2025 (although Madeira and Azores remained unaffected). 

Spain 

Spain had to rescue 35,000 passengers who were stranded in metros, Nuclear power plants were shut down, and internet providers dropped to 17% of normal usage, there was also some impact in government buildings and power was fully restored by April the 29th at 9:00 (GMT). Spain had an estimated economic impact of 1.6 billion euros in losses. 

The blackout did not affect the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, or Gibraltar. 

“Wikipedia” 

Police Handling traffic due to traffic signals being disabled  

Possible causes  

While the cause is still being investigated, there is some speculation, that it was a cyberattack,  which was supposedly ruled out due to a lack of evidence. A massive disconnection of the grid in the south-west of Spain, caused by either a system or a physical fault was also speculated, there is also speculation of an atmospheric phenomenon which damaged high voltage power lines, which was also supposedly ruled out. Lastly another important speculation one is an issue with the European electric grid line due to a fire in the south-west of France, which damaged a high-voltage power line, but whatever the cause it was able to knock 100,000 megawatts across Europe. 

How to prepare 

The best way to prepare yourself for cases like this is by stocking things such as the following materials, which can help you: 

• Batteries 

• Lanterns 

• Radio (That uses batteries) 

• Candles and lighters 

• Water 

• Canned food, Energy bars 

• Emergency Kit 

• Power banks 

• Medication  

Citations 

Blackout chaos: the full list of countries hit by Europe’s massive power cut 

By Farah MokraniContainer: Euro Weekly NewsYear: 2025URL: https://euroweeklynews.com/2025/04/28/blackout-chaos-the-full-list-of-countries-hit-by-europes-massive-power-cut/ 

Spain, Portugal and parts of France hit by massive power outage 

By Aleksandar BrezarContainer: euronewsPublisher: Euronews.comYear: 2025URL: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/04/28/spain-portugal-and-parts-of-france-hit-by-massive-power-outage 

Electricity blackout in the Iberian Peninsula and the South of France on April 28, 2025 

By Contributors toContainer: Wikipedia.orgPublisher: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Year: 2025URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_European_power_outage