By Minener Editorial Team | May 2025
The Spanish power system experienced an additional disturbance just seconds before the massive blackout that plunged Spain, Portugal, and southern France into darkness on April 28. This was confirmed a week later by Spain’s Third Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen.
According to Aagesen, ongoing investigations into the outage revealed that a third grid incident occurred 19 seconds before the blackout. This new event took place in southern Spain, although the government insists there is no evidence that a specific plant or power facility failed.
In an interview with Spanish national television (TVE), Aagesen explained: “When we zoomed in on the data, we didn’t just look at the five seconds during which the two known incidents occurred. We examined the minutes leading up to the event and found that 19 seconds before, there was already a drop in generation—yet another disturbance adding to the previous two.”
The two earlier disturbances caused the disappearance of 15 gigawatts from the grid in a span of five seconds, primarily affecting southwestern Spain. These events were initially reported by Red Eléctrica, Spain’s grid operator.
Aagesen clarified that the power system successfully withstood the first two events, including the one 19 seconds before the blackout. However, it was the third disturbance that overwhelmed the system and triggered the widespread outage across the Iberian Peninsula and parts of France.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition continues to investigate the full sequence of failures that led to the unprecedented power collapse, considered one of the most significant energy disruptions in Spain’s recent history.