A massive power outage affecting Spain and Portugal on April 28th, leaving tens of millions without power for hours, was caused by technical and planning errors, according to Spain's government. A voltage surge triggered cascading failures across the grid in just 12 seconds. The government's report, released 49 days later, rules out a cyberattack, citing poor planning by the grid operator and insufficient backup power generation as contributing factors. Despite speculation linking the outage to Spain's high renewable energy use, the government maintains its commitment to its energy transition plan.

Prepared by Jonathan Pierce and reviewed by editorial team.