Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
Energy supplies in Spain and Portugal are back to almost normal after one of the largest power cuts in recent European history, with some knock on effects still felt by residents, particularly in transport.
Spanish and Portuguese authorities vowed to do whatever it takes to prevent similar outages in future as they confirmed plans for domestic and international groups to look at the causes of the disruption (13:52, 15:34).
Spain’s highest criminal cause will also look at the power cut, investigating it “an act of computer sabotage” could have been perpetrated “against critical Spanish infrastructure” (14:44) – despite comments from grid operators that they ruled out a cyber-attack (11:51, 13:01).
Portuguese power network operator REN also denied it was behind a message circulated on social media attributing the massive blackout across the Iberian peninsula to a rare atmospheric event (12:16), a theory also rejected by Spain’s national meteorological office (11:23).
EU said it would look at what comes out of national investigations and “draw lessons” at the European level, reiterating its guidance to step up civil preparedness for all sorts of possible incidents (13:17).
Here is full story from our Madrid correspondent Sam Jones:
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
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Portugal to ask EU body to help with independent probe into blackout
Portuguese acting prime minister Luís Montenegro said his government had requested that the European Union’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators perform an independent audit of the power outage that hit the Iberian Peninsula the day before, Reuters reported.
“We want a full investigation of the outage’s causes. We need quick, urgent answers,” Montenegro told a news briefing.
Montenegro also said the government would set up an independent technical committee to investigate the power cut, Público reported.
