Power has been largely restored across Spain, Portugal, and a part of southern France, following a blackout that affected these three countries. Red Eléctrica, Spain's national grid operator, confirmed that 99.16% of electricity demand has been met, with all transmission grid substations operational. In Portugal, operator REN reported that its network is "perfectly stabilised," with 85 out of 89 substations fully restored.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez mentioned that after a "busy night," 99.95% of Spain's energy demand was met, and all transportation network substations were back online. Spain's National Security Council is set to assess the situation further. Sánchez acknowledged citizens for their responsibility and civic spirit during the crisis.
The blackout, described as "absolutely exceptional" by REN, occurred at 11:33 am on Monday, affecting around 60% of Spain's electricity supply within five seconds. Major cities like Madrid and Barcelona faced disruptions, including traffic light outages, metro station closures, and strained mobile networks. Reports indicated people in Barcelona were purchasing battery-powered radios due to communication outages.
©Kees Havenaar
Tania Silva of Portuguese fresh produce exporter Rush Farms Portugal stated that consumers started stocking up on supplies, leaving shelves empty: "Yesterday was chaotic to say the least. For the first few minutes, we were still connected to the world and were able to understand that something big was happening across the country, in Spain, as well as parts of France. The shelves of supermarkets and gas stations were out of stock in some parts by 14.00. Because of the blackout, not only of electricity, but also of water, and mobile signal, people went to panic-buy and stocked up on goods for about 4 to 5 days, leaving the shelves completely empty in some places. So, in the next few days, all of the retailers will have to work hard to resupply their shelves."
She continued: "The Portuguese government started to produce energy from the two main central, and around 10 pm, the entire country had energy, water, and signal again. This was a reminder of the importance of water management. The sector had until last week to submit a request to the government regarding this point. We have the biggest artificial lake in Europe, Alqueva, and we need to create connections between these water reservations, not only to ensure the water supply to all activities and domestic use, but also to generate electricity in an efficient way, in case this kind of blackout happens again. This would prevent all activities in the country from being halted when Spain is not able to help us in these situations, as per the agreement that both countries have with each other. And the sector is not only considering itself, but also the hospitals, airports, emergency services, and so on."
"Regarding the farming activities, except for those that are produced in greenhouses, it was a regular day. A little more water stress for the plants, but nothing that can't be solved today," Silva concluded.
This morning, Red Eléctrica announced that 99.95% of electricity demand in Spain (around 25,794 MW) had been restored after the power system in Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and part of France suffered a blackout yesterday at around 12:35 p.m.
All Spanish businesses and workers were directly affected not only by the power outage but also by the impact it had on telecommunications networks—affecting phone and internet services—and transportation, during hours of confusion and disconnection.
In the fruit and vegetable sector, companies from all provinces and market segments reported issues in communicating with clients, suppliers, and family members, as well as difficulties carrying out daily tasks—most of them highly dependent on electricity.
"In our case, we are in the middle of the stone fruit season, which started last week," explained an operator from Murcia. "After the blackout, it was impossible to communicate with anyone and no orders could leave the warehouses. There was no way to contact supermarkets or transport companies to find out what was happening, and in the end, if a truck did show up, we couldn't load it because, among other things, the dock ramps wouldn't lift, so loading was impossible."
"Around midnight, power was restored to the warehouse, and at that hour, we had to get to work to store all the fruit that had been left out and which we hadn't been able to process or ship."
Mariano Zapata, president of Proexport, stated that "it is too soon to calculate the financial losses that may have occurred in the fruit and vegetable sector. Keep in mind that this is fresh produce, and for example, some companies have backup generators that allowed them to keep their cold storage running, while others were not so lucky."
"In general, yesterday was a day of chaos and disorder, because we are very electricity-dependent. Administratively, without communication with clients and suppliers, managing orders was extremely difficult—we know many orders were never even received. Other operations, like loading shipments or pre-cooling the produce, were simply not feasible. Later on, we'll also need to file claims and see how the insurance companies respond," he added.
Even this morning, companies located in the Almería region still did not have fully restored electricity. Power would come and go, as did internet and phone connections.
The impact appeared more evident in one of the sectors with the highest electricity demand—the frozen food industry—though it was relatively limited, as explained by Frozen Ibérica. "The advantage of this sector is that many of the large freezer facilities, including those for frozen fruits and vegetables, have generators or battery systems to handle emergencies like this. Also, the shelf life of ultra-frozen products in such cases is longer than that of refrigerated fresh products."
"We work with temperatures between -24 and -30 degrees Celsius, and we're even considering reducing freezing temperatures to -15 degrees. So in most cases, the cold chain was maintained because the power outage was relatively short."
"Still, we must point out that, as of this morning, electricity had not yet been restored everywhere in Spain. In the southern countryside of Córdoba, for example, where a major French-owned frozen vegetable company is based, power was still out."
In the Valencian Community, according to Ava-Asaja, nurseries and greenhouses experienced issues due to the interruption of plant ventilation systems—particularly in facilities lacking backup generators. Additionally, the blackout caused failures in refrigeration and preservation systems for agri-food products.
In terms of irrigation, some irrigation entities and private wells reported problems because they could not water their farmland—electric pumps and other devices were out of service due to the lack of electricity. Many irrigation systems remained inoperative this morning because their programming was lost. This situation impacted crops most sensitive to water fluctuations, especially those in peak growth stages, worsened by the high temperatures recorded over the weekend.
"Fortunately, by 13:00 h. we had already processed and shipped our production, so the impact on us was minimal. We just ended the workday earlier," said a major producer and marketer of mandarins and oranges in the province of Castellón.
Overall, the agricultural sector experienced issues similar to those affecting other parts of the economy, including disruptions to IT systems, monitoring systems, inventory controls, and logistics due to the blackout. In many cases, gas station closures also prevented agricultural machinery from being refueled.
For now, the exact cause of the blackout that paralyzed Spain and Portugal yesterday remains unknown, but Red Eléctrica has confirmed that it can rule out a "cybersecurity incident" as the reason.
"By now, everything has been restored for us," says Kees Havenaar of Frutas Luna, who indicates that the consequences, apart from a few delays, seem to be limited. " You go back to basics for a while. You have no internet and no light, which means you really get stuck for a while. Then you also discover how dependent everyone is on the internet. An hour is still manageable, but this was 20 hours long. All communication is lost. At first, you expect it to be a malfunction at your own level, and you go to your fuse box, but then you hear that it is also at a provincial level, so Almeria. Then it even turns out that it is the entire peninsula. Then it gets a bit exciting, because you can't look up updates without internet. It really is back to the time when you all sit around the radio on batteries to hear what is going on."
It was then quickly decided at the company that there was nothing more to be done. "At a certain point, we found out that it was large-scale, and then you send everyone home, because nothing could be done anyway," Kees explains. "You don't just go randomly do things. Eventually, there was light again at 8.15 this morning, and at 9 o'clock everyone was ready again. Then you immediately pick everything up again and start up, so we are now back to normal." Whether there will be consequences, according to him, is difficult to say. "We'll have to wait and see, but I expect it to be okay. The Packers were, of course, idle for a while, so that has been postponed. There was also some panic here and there because loading was not possible. Still, apart from a few delays, there will be few problems. You'll need some flexibility from your customers that everything will come a bit later, but there was understanding across the board. Fortunately, it only lasted 20 hours, because you now notice that if this continues for two or three days, real problems will arise. Then it can quickly become dramatic."
For the fresh produce industry in Spain, the damage seems to be limited. "Something like this always comes unexpectedly, of course," says Léon van der Geer, who works in the commercial department of the Spanish Sigfrido Fruit. "Luckily, we have our own power supply, which allowed us to deliver most of the orders. I did see around me that many companies closed their doors, and several supermarkets could not stay open either."
There is some tension, though: "You mainly notice some nervousness", explains Ive Lambert of the Belgian importer Starfruit. "Yesterday, nothing was actually packed. The produce is all there. Melons are starting to come along, and stone fruit is available, but when everything suddenly comes to a standstill in the middle of the day, after a lot has come to the packing stations in the morning, a problem arises. It will all be packed today, but the produce won't arrive until Thursday. Then you have a holiday in many countries, so it goes to Friday. Everything is a bit out of order."
At Micofruit, they are somewhat relieved by the timing of the massive outage, explains Flemish Sharon Veroone, who works for the Spanish company in Valencia. "There was indeed a major power outage, but in Valencia it was a public holiday. That was our luck. If it had happened in two weeks, when we start our stone fruit season, you could call it a disaster. We do not need electricity for the work in our fields, which we are currently busy with, so fortunately we have not experienced much inconvenience." John Gijbels of Euro Gijbels, which has a production location in Catalonia, sees that, at the time of writing, the power has not yet been restored to the company in certain areas. "The electricity pylons have been working again since this morning, and we also have electricity in our warehouse, but we still have no power in the fields. If it comes back soon, it will be fine, but we will have to wait and see."