I still follow this blackout story.....small updates occasionally. So the basic story....
On 28 April 2025 around 12:33 PM....a massive power outage struck Spain. Effect? About 55-60 million people in mainland Spain and Portugal....for ten-plus hours, and some folks....it took around 24 hours.
I should add....there is a small area in southwestern France which lost power for a couple of hours.
Oddly enough....no lives were lost.
What caused it?
Around noon, Spain was producing a lot of renewable energy (wind and solar made up roughly 80% of power at the time).
Electricity prices were super low, so Spain was exporting a record 5 gigawatts (GW) to neighbors like France.
Then.....suddenly, in the south of Spain, about 2.2-to-2.5 GW of mostly solar and wind power dropped offline in just 20 seconds. The explanation given? A mix of overvoltage (too much electrical "push") and some types of glitches that have never been really detailed. This caused wild swings in voltage and frequency (the grid's "heartbeat").
The grid went into automatic....trying to fix itself with automatic defenses (like cutting exports to France), but that simply didn't work.
Voltage spiked even higher in a "cascade" (chain reaction), tripping more plants offline across Spain and Portugal. Connections to France snapped, and the whole Spanish system collapsed in minutes.
If you wanted something to blame? Spain's network hasn't kept up with rapid renewable growth.
Yeah, you can bring backup as an issue as well.
Probability of reoccurring? I'd give it a 5-percent chance.
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