Millions of people in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France have been plunged into darkness as power outages swept across the countries.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X that she spoke with Spanish President Pedro Sánchez about the power outage.
“I reaffirmed the @EU_Commission’s support in monitoring the situation with national and European authorities and our Electricity Coordination Group,” she wrote. “We will coordinate efforts and share information to help restore the electricity system, and agreed to stay in close contact.”
Von der Leyen added that she also spoke with Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro about the matter.
“We will work together to help restore the electricity system and reassure citizens,” she wrote, asserting that “energy security is crucial for the EU.”
Spanish power company Red Eléctrica said it may take up to 10 hours to restore power to Spain, CBS News reports, while a Portuguese grid operator said it could take up to a week to restore electricity in Portugal.
“We are beginning to recover power in the north and south of the peninsula, which is key to gradually addressing the electricity supply,” Red Eléctrica announced on social media, according to a translation. “This process involves the gradual energization of the transmission grid as the generating units are connected. We continue working to restore power.”
Portugal’s government believes the outage may have originated from outside the country.
“It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It’s still being ascertained,” Cabinet Minister Leitão Amaro stated.
E-Redes, a Portuguese distributor, said the power outage is linked to a “problem with the European electricity system.”
