Spain blames national grid for massive power cut that left millions in the dark

Spain’s government has issued a scathing assessment of the country’s electricity network following April’s major blackout, blaming grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE) and power producers for widespread failures that left millions across Spain and Portugal without power.

Energy Minister Sara Aagesen announced Monday that the outage – one of the worst in recent Iberian history, was caused by a voltage surge and grid mismanagement, not cyber-attacks or renewable energy issues, as some speculated. She emphasised on lack of operational planning to be cause of failure, dismissing claims of external interference.

On 28 April, a sharp voltage fluctuation triggered cascading shutdowns across Spain’s grid, cutting off up to 15 gigawatts of power, or roughly 60% of the national supply, within seconds. The collapse affected critical infrastructure, from hospitals and airports to homes and digital services. Portugal, which shares part of its grid with Spain, was also hit.

According to the report, REE failed to bring enough thermal plants online and did not ensure the network could handle rising reactive power – technical weaknesses that amplified the disruption. Power company alliance Aelec, which represents major providers including Iberdrola and Endesa, strongly rejected the government’s claim, accusing REE of “distorting the facts.”

The blackout’s political fallout is intensifying. Cross-party calls for accountability continue, while the European Investment Bank has pledged €1.6 billion toward new interconnectors between Spain and France to improve future resilience.

Though some public debate questioned whether the rise of solar and wind energy played a role, Aagesen categorically denied this. “Renewables were not the cause,” she said. “The system failed because of poor oversight.”

Legal consequences and compensation claims are expected as Spain reckons with the vulnerabilities exposed by the April outage.