If you’ve ever suffered a power outage in your own home, you might have thought it was difficult to get through without any power. You might think you had the worst of it, but imagine being in Spain or Portugal during the mass power outage on April 28th of this year. What might have happened? Why did the power just vanish? Here’s what we know.
The massive power outage of Portugal and Spain occurred on April 28, 2025. Portugal’s prime minister, Luis Montenegro claims that it was a cyber attack. Portugal also claims that it all started in Spain. A Portuguese REN board member stated that there was a “very large oscillation in electrical voltage, first in the Spanish system, which then spread to the Portuguese system.”
Another big interference of this power outage is that many essential needs such as, hospitals, supermarkets, gas stations, etc, were suspended from the public use. Minutes later, Luis Montenegro issued a statement, saying that there was “no indication involving a cyber attack.” After that, Spain had all the blame.
As those 10 hours of no power kept going, problems began with 35,000 people getting trapped in 11 different trains, eventually being saved by rescue services. I spoke with someone who has firsthand knowledge of the outage, so let’s see what they think about this issue. This interviewee happens to be my own family member who lives there and experienced this huge blackout, and this is what she stated, “The power went out, out of nowhere. It took a long time for the power to return.”
Another interviewee who shared his opinion about this problem would be Aizen L from FMS. He stated, “I think it was shocking.” When asked if he thinks they will figure out what caused the outage, he responded, “No, because they have other busy things to do.” Finally, we spoke about his thoughs regarding whether people can survive without power and he said, “No, people can’t survive without electricity, many essentials involve power.”
After those 10 long hours, the power was restored. The GNR or more obviously known as the Portuguese police said that even though the power was restored, many other electrical essentials, such as traffic lights and street lights, weren’t fully restored until a bit later. Madrid mayor, Luis Martinez-Almeida stated that city street lighting had not been fully restored so he recommended people stay at home, adding, “It is essential that the emergency services can circulate.”
Even though this problem occurred out of the blue, still, no one knows what caused it and who did this. Although the power has returned, not many people seem concerned about finding out the cause. Do you think they will have the guts to catch the person who did this, if it was a cyberattack? Is it possible that they’re close to cracking the case? The world may never know.
