At 12:33 of April 28, 2025, Spain plunged into chaos. A sudden collapse of 15,000 megawatts – 60% of the electrical demand – left millions of essential homes, companies and services without supply.
«It’s something that had never happened,» Pedro Sánchez admitted hours later, while the streets were filled with people looking for a sign on their mobiles and without knowing very well what happened.
Portugal launched the first clue, speaking of an alleged induced atmospheric phenomenon, an anomalous vibration in the atmosphere capable of altering electrical networks. The explanation, quickly denied by his own technicians, left more doubts in the air. Meanwhile, in France, he rumored over a fire in a Narbonne substation, but the authorities denied him.
With this as a base, The waters begin to calm down with respect to a possible cyber attack. Without going any further, Red Eléctrica has already ruled out a cybersecurity incident as a cause. «Indeed, there has been no intrusion in the control systems that the incident could have caused,» they say.
Electric Ret
Comment that, days before the blackout, the National Intelligence Center detected «unusual activity from North Africa», according to sources consulted by Servimedia. Although the Government avoids directly linking it, the data is already feeding the suspicions of a coordinated attack.
Teresa Ribera, vice president of the European Commission, came up: «There are no signing indications.» But the message is his time, he did not calm the waters and experts remembered yesterday that a cyber attack could leave a few traces at first, as demonstrated by the case of the colonial gas pipeline in the US in 2021.
The striking thing is precisely the geopolitical moment so tense that it is being lived with conflicts that cyber warring have used as a weapon. Russia, China and Iran appear in intelligence reports as actors with the capacity to throw down and completely energy networks.
Nacais Energy Networks (Portugal) and Spanish Electric Red coincide: the oscillations in the network were «anomalous and simultaneous», a pattern that some technicians relate to possible external interference. However, so far the first conclusive evidence has not appeared.
Both the National Cryptological Center, dependent on the CNI, and the Joint Cyberspace Command of the Ministry of Defense began investigations To rule out or confirm this possibility and, finally, it seems that the cyber attack is ruled out.
Thus the «energy zero» in Spain was unleashed
- The domino effect: it all started with an overload in 400 kV lines that spread the failure as dominoes. In five seconds, the system lost capacity to feed 15 million homes.
- The emergency protocol: hospitals and airports activated diesel generators, but 90% of the network was absolute zero. The emergency level 3 was declared in Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadura.
- The nightmare in the city: without traffic lights or communications, the roads became dangerous places. Renfe suspended 70% of his trains, and Barajas canceled 48 flights.
- The dark night: at 23:00, 50% of the supply returned. But Metro de Madrid, Rodalies and rural areas were still collapsed. The Civil Guard reported robberies in some businesses as expected.
With all this on the table and with many doubts even in the air that, little by little, will be clarified, Was it avoidable? Experts consulted by The sixth They point out that Spain underestimated the risks and only 20% of the substations have anti-liberate protection level 5, the standard standard.
The Chambers of Commerce estimate losses of 1.2 billion only with a first count or estimate. Small businesses such as bakeries or pharmacies have been the most affected.
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Tags: Spain, cybersecurity