Bitter experience of power outages in Europe and million-euro damages

The Spanish and Portuguese power grids went down in a matter of minutes on Monday, causing widespread chaos.

According to media reports, the historic power outage in Spain also caused significant economic damage. Estimates put the damage at up to 4.5 billion euros. Industrial facilities were damaged, cold chains were disrupted, and card terminals were disabled.

According to the CEOE business association, the massive power outage in Spain on Monday caused economic damage of around 1.6 billion euros. The association said in response to an inquiry that this figure was equivalent to around 0.1 of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

The newspaper El Pais reported that some banking analysts were even expecting losses of between 2.25 and 4.5 billion euros.

The power outage that lasted more than ten hours largely paralyzed the country. Many industrial companies, such as Volkswagen in Pamplona and its subsidiary Seat near Barcelona, ​​were forced to stop production during this time. Some industrial facilities were damaged by the sudden power outage.

The food industry and retailers also complained of severe losses, for example, due to disruptions in cold storage chains. Many supermarkets were forced to throw away their entire refrigerated and frozen food because it had overheated.

Many shops and restaurants also closed early, ATMs stopped working, and card payments were no longer possible everywhere. Construction activities were halted, intercity trains remained on the route, and metros remained in tunnels.

According to media reports, the power outage in northwestern Spain also had tragic consequences. Three members of a family have died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the small town of Tabuadela, regional newspaper La Voz de Galicia and news agency Europa Press reported, citing police.

The victims were a couple aged 81 and 77, and their 56-year-old son. The oldest member of the family needed a respirator. When the power went out, an emergency gasoline generator was turned on, apparently spreading smoke throughout the house without anyone noticing. A woman also died in her apartment in Madrid during the blackout. A candle ignited the fire and killed her.

There is still no definitive information about the cause of the largest power outage in the country's history. The Spanish government has announced a full investigation.

Rumors have been circulating online that a cyberattack was the cause. However, Portuguese and Spanish authorities say there is no evidence of this.

The European Union's cybersecurity agency also announced after this widespread outage that initial investigations into the matter showed that the outage was caused by a technical failure and not a hacker attack.

Plunged into a pre-electric age

After the outages, with service returning to normal levels, the Guardian spoke to people who got in touch as they reflected on what lessons to learn from the incident in terms of preparedness and resilience.

In Barcelona, Beibei, 41, at first found the outages “quite exciting”. It was only when her neighbour knocked on her door with her four-month-old baby and said: “You know it’s Europe-wide,” that she started to worry. “I saw my own fear in her face,” she said.

She wanted to pick up her six-year-old son from school, but needed to buy food first. “In nearly total darkness the shopkeepers were turning cashless customers away,” said Beibei, who works as a climate campaigner and has lived in Spain since the Covid pandemic. She picked up some essentials, but seeing other customers with trolleys full of food, she began to worry she didn’t have enough.

Doug Craib, a 60-year-old based in Brighton, boarded the 9.57am Madrid to Barcelona train to visit a friend on Monday. But before arriving, the train shuddered to a halt. There was no mobile signal, and the doors remained sealed for about two hours until authorities arrived, opened the doors and gave out bottled drinks, he said.

He said a woman suffered a panic attack about six hours in. “The air in the carriages was thick and hot,” he said. As night fell, police eventually escorted passengers off the train with torches, and they walked with bags to a bus that took them to Barcelona, arriving about midnight, he said.

Catarina, a 24-year-old engineer in Porto, was at her office when the power failed. She went home and filled up on water in case the pumps stopped carrying it to her third-floor apartment. She listened for updates on a wind-up radio she’d bought last month, after the EU urged people to make emergency precautions.