فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Madrid, Spain – The Spanish government announced on Tuesday the formation of an official commission of inquiry to determine the real causes behind the sudden and widespread power outage that struck the Iberian Peninsula on Monday. This comes as the Spanish judiciary has opened a separate investigation into a potential “cyber sabotage” scenario, despite the national electricity company dismissing this hypothesis.
At a press conference held on Tuesday, the Spanish Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, stressed that “all necessary measures will be taken to ensure that this incident does not happen again.” He announced the establishment of a special investigation committee headed by the Ministry for Ecological Transition to investigate the circumstances of the event.
Sánchez explained that “the technicians of the electricity grid continue to analyze their complex system, and we expect to receive their initial findings in the coming hours or few days.” He emphasized that “no hypothesis will be ruled out until we have the results of these comprehensive analyses.”
In parallel with the government investigation, a judge at the National Court in Madrid, the judicial body competent to hear the most serious cases including terrorism, announced the opening of a judicial investigation into the possibility of a “cyber sabotage” act behind the widespread blackout.
The judge indicated that the aim of the investigation is “to determine whether the power outage that affected the Spanish electricity grid yesterday, and which affected the entire country, could be a cyber sabotage act targeting vital Spanish infrastructure, and if so, it could be classified as a terrorist crime.”
However, by midday on Tuesday, the Spanish electricity company was quick to rule out the cyberattack hypothesis. The company’s Chief Operating Officer, Eduardo Prieto, affirmed that “based on the analyses we have carried out so far, we can rule out any cybersecurity incident in the facilities of the electricity grid.”
The neighboring Portuguese government also dismissed this hypothesis, although the exact reasons behind this unprecedented incident are still under study and analysis. The Spanish electricity company had indicated on Monday evening a “strong fluctuation in energy flows” on the electricity grid “accompanied by a very significant loss of production,” which led to the disconnection of the Spanish system from the unified European electricity network.
At his press conference, Pedro Sánchez strongly denied any link between the large power outage and a shortage of nuclear energy in Spain. He rejected the criticisms leveled in this regard by the far-right Vox party, which were also widely circulated among social media users.
The Spanish Prime Minister stressed that “those who link this incident to the lack of nuclear energy are either lying or demonstrating their ignorance of the facts.”
The issue of nuclear energy has been a subject of political debate in Spain for months, following the government’s announcement of plans to close two of the remaining seven reactors, which currently provide about 20% of the country’s electricity, compared to about 40% for solar and wind power.
According to the Spanish electricity company, the electricity system, which had recovered more than 99% of its power by Tuesday morning, was back to full capacity by midday, just like the Portuguese network, according to the electricity company in the neighboring country.
Sánchez explained that in the face of the power outage, nuclear power plants, like other electricity sources, were “disconnected” from the Spanish electricity system, and therefore “nuclear production was not more flexible in dealing with the situation.”
He added that “nuclear power plants were not a solution, but rather part of the problem” because “it was necessary to redirect large amounts of energy to them to maintain the stability of their reactors.”
In various streets and neighborhoods in Spain, residents greeted the return of electricity on Monday evening with a wave of applause and cheers, after a long and difficult day spent in darkness, often accompanied by interruptions in internet and mobile phone services.
The return of electricity led to the resumption of train traffic on many main routes, including the Madrid-Seville and Madrid-Barcelona lines, according to the national railway company “Renfe.”
However, the situation remained complicated at the Atocha station in Madrid on Tuesday morning, where crowds of desperate passengers waited for trains. Every time the departure of a train was announced, the travelers greeted it with applause.
Bars and shops in the capital gradually reopened on Tuesday morning, resuming their normal activity after most of them were forced to close early on Monday.
Most schools also welcomed students normally, although Spain’s largely decentralized system grants significant authority to the regions in making decisions regarding such matters.
Spaniards are drawing valuable lessons from this sudden power outage, which underscored the importance of keeping a transistor radio, batteries, and candles at home in case of a similar emergency.
“The afternoon was a break, a break from technology, a sudden disconnection from the world,” said Marcos García, a 32-year-old lawyer from Madrid. “(…) We have been prepared for anything since the beginning of the pandemic, everything seemed simpler.”
Nevertheless, residents eagerly awaited the full return to normalcy in both Spain and Portugal after a long day of difficulties that included the shutdown of subways and trains, crowded buses, and disrupted communications.
