Europe blackout: Spain denies claims of strange atmospheric phenomena
Illustrative photo: A blackout occurred in some European countries (Getty Images)
Spain's weather service says no weather event could have caused the blackout that has hit parts of Europe, The Guardian reports.
Background
Yesterday, many European countries experienced widespread power outages. The media later reported that Portuguese grid operator REN had attributed the outages to a rare atmospheric phenomenon. According to the company, extreme temperature fluctuations in Spain had caused abnormal oscillations in high-voltage lines.
The phenomenon, known as induced atmospheric oscillations, could have caused synchronisation failures between electrical systems, leading to successive disruptions in the interconnected European grid.
What Spain says
However, Spain's national meteorological agency, Aemet, has ruled out weather as the culprit.
"During the day of 28 April, no unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena were detected, and nor were there sudden variations in the temperature in our network of meteorological stations," it said in a statement.
Portugal's REN statement
Portuguese grid operator REN today denied any involvement in a social media post that attributed a massive power outage in the Iberian Peninsula to a rare atmospheric phenomenon.
"REN confirms we did not put out this statement," said spokesperson Bruno Silva.
Blackout in Europe
A massive blackout hit several European countries, including Spain, France, and Portugal, on the afternoon of Monday, April 28. Millions of people were left without electricity, causing major disruptions to transport, communications, businesses, and critical infrastructure.
Media reports said it could take between 6 and 10 hours for Spain to fully restore power. The country has even declared a state of emergency due to the blackout.
Initially, Portugal's national electricity company, REN, said a fire in southwestern France, on Mount Alaric, was the likely cause of the problem. This fire damaged a high-voltage power line between Perpignan and eastern Narbonne.
In addition, the version of a cyberattack is being investigated. However, later, the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, denied this information. Read more about the blackout in Europe in RBC-Ukraine's report.
We also showed how Spain and Portugal are experiencing a blackout.
