The inhabitants of Portugal have also got the power back after the outage. According to the state-owned operator REN, everything is now functioning normally again.
"We can now confirm that the network has been stabilized," it says in a statement.
In both Spain and Portugal, almost everything was shut down in the massive power outage that occurred at 12:33 pm on Monday, shutting down the countries. Mobile networks, airports, local traffic, traffic lights, and shopping centers were temporarily shut down.
This has never happened before in Spain, says Carlos Candori, a 19-year-old construction worker who made his way out of the subway in Madrid.
There is no mobile coverage, I cannot call my family, my parents, nothing. I cannot even go to work.
Unclear cause
The work of restoring power has taken time – even ten hours after the outage, half of Spanish households and two-thirds of Portuguese households were without power.
It is still unclear what caused the outage – the largest in Spanish history. Many rumors have flourished, and in the absence of clear information, misinformation has spread.
Both EU Council President António Costa and the Spanish Vice-President of the EU Commission, Teresa Ribera, say that there is no evidence that a cyberattack caused the outage.
State of emergency
According to the Spanish rescue service, 35,000 people were assisted during the outage, who were stranded at different train stations and subway lines.
Three regions – Andalusia, Extremadura, and Madrid – requested that a state of emergency be declared.
30,000 police officers were deployed to make Spain safer during the night.
Citizens can and should feel safe, said Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
