Power mostly restored as Spain and Portugal grapple with fallout of massive outage

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🗞️ Driving the news: Power has been restored to nearly all of Spain and Portugal following a massive blackout on April 28 that plunged the Iberian Peninsula and parts of southern France into darkness
• Transport disruptions, including suspended trains and delayed flights, are expected to continue as both countries remain under states of emergency while authorities investigate the cause of the outage.

🔭 The context: The blackout halted daily life across major hubs such as Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Seville, affecting nearly 60 million people
• Early reports suggest the incident may have originated in Spain, with cascading effects in Portugal, which relies on Spanish electricity imports during early morning hours
• While there is no evidence of a cyberattack, the outage exposed vulnerabilities in cross-border energy systems and highlighted the critical need for resilient, interconnected grids

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Large-scale grid failures can undermine public trust in renewable energy transitions if resilience is not prioritized
• As countries increasingly integrate solar and other renewables, ensuring grid stability becomes vital to prevent cascading blackouts
• The Iberian Peninsula’s blackout serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need to modernize energy infrastructure for both climate targets and security of supply

⏭️ What's next: Spain and Portugal are expected to conduct full investigations into the causes and weaknesses exposed by the outage, with potential upgrades to grid stability protocols
• Transportation systems will gradually recover throughout the week, but broader reviews of energy resilience and cross-border energy cooperation are likely to follow at the national and EU levels

💬 One quote: “In recent months, the global economic and geopolitical landscape has rapidly and significantly changed, resulting in increased uncertainty and rising competitiveness concerns for Canadian issuers" — Stan Magidson, Chair of the CSA

📈 One stat: Madrid’s firefighters conducted 174 elevator rescues across the city during the blackout, underscoring the widespread impact on urban infrastructure

See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability performance of Red Eléctrica and its peers Iberdrola, and REN

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