The investigation by European experts into the massive power outage that caused chaos in Spain and Portugal in April highlights the phenomena of overvoltage, “a first” in Europe, and possibly in the world, but the “underlying” causes remain unknown.
Paris – The president of the ENTSO-E council, the European network of electricity transmission system operators, Damian Cortinas, stated that this outage, “the most severe that Europe has experienced in the last twenty years,” is “the first of its kind” related to a phenomenon of “cascading overvoltages.”
“This has never happened before in Europe, we are sure of that,” he indicated in Brussels. And probably “worldwide,” he added, during the presentation of a preliminary report on Friday.
The electrical voltage can be compared to the “pressure” of water in a pipe: applied to electricity, it is what sets the electrons in motion. In the case of an “overvoltage,” the electrical system must protect itself.
The outage occurred on April 28 and caused chaos in both Portugal and Spain, where residents were deprived of power as well as internet and mobile phone services.
This “factual” report, produced by a panel of 45 European experts, does not yet provide the causes of the initial incidents. (October 3, 2025)
