Nearby Portugal was put at a standstill after Spain declared a state of emergency, two countries hitting vast areas of the two countries, with power operators scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.
Traffic trenches, planes are grounded and hang trains, while people are trapped in elevators with no water supply. Starting around 12.30pm on Monday, during the outage, mobile networks, Wi-Fi, ATMs and card machines are not available for mobile networks, Wi-Fi, ATMs and card machines.
The Spanish Ministry of Interior said the emergency will be applied in regions requiring the region, Madrid, Andalusia and Extremadulla demanded that the central government take over public order and other functions.
In Portugal, a country with 10.6 million people, power outages hit the capital, Lisbon and surrounding areas, as well as the north and south of the country. At the same time, Spain's capital Madrid and major cities such as Barcelona and Valencia were also affected.
Spanish grid operator Red Electric said the massive power outages affected the Iberian Peninsula and it is working with energy companies to restore electricity.
As the power outage continues, please update regularly on your live blog.
Commuters leave metro station after power outage in Madrid (EPA)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the problem was triggered by “strong oscillations” in the power grid, but the cause is still determined. Spanish leaders asked the public to avoid speculation and said theories about the cause were not discarded.
When Portuguese grid operator Ren proposed that the “rare atmospheric phenomenon” caused by “extreme temperatures” inside Spain was behind the interruption, adding that the operation of restoring the entire Portuguese energy distribution is more complicated than Spain and may take a week to fully return to the country.
Red Electrica says it aims to fully restore power within six to 10 hours. Electricity has been restored in the northern and southern parts of the peninsula.
The power outage is believed to have affected millions (AP)
Michael Basquill, a resident of Torremolinos, said, although he told independent He was worried that it was only temporary.
“For us, the situation involves not only the loss of power,” he said. “The interruption also eliminates our mobile networks, leaving us without any form of communication.
“In addition, the water supply to our apartment was cut off – probably because the city’s pumping system also requires electricity. It does feel like the end of the world.
“For about six hours, we were completely isolated and could not even call for information,” he said. “It's a guess about what's going on.”
Madrid Open fans were suspended after the game was suspended due to power outages (Reuters).
A portion of Madrid's underground was suspended and traffic lights across the capital stopped working. Portuguese police said traffic lights across the country were affected, with the subway shutting down in Lisbon and Porto.
Social media footage from Malaga, the south coast of Spain, also showed that subway passengers were forced into the tunnel when the carriage was evacuated.
After the game was suspended, a Siobhan Baker at the Madrid Open
Madrid Open Tennis Championship organizers suspended the day's match as scoreboards and cameras were disabled around the clay court.
British tennis fan Siobhan Baker is watching British tennis player Jacob Fearnley against Gregor Dimitrov, saying there was widespread chaos when the power outage hit.
“The TV screen went out, so they paused the game,” she said. “They couldn't resume the game because the camera was trapped on the court. It hung on one side of the court so they couldn't resume the game.
“We go out and have beer, assuming it’s here, the electricity will be restored soon.” Then, they found that the cuts were the state.
People chatted near WhatsApp near Barcelona, and power outages were also reported in suburban towns.
People get off the Renfe Expressway train near Cordoba, Spain (AFP/Getty)
The cuts also affect people flying to Portugal and Spain this time of year, a popular holiday destination.
More than 500 flights will travel from UK airports to the two countries on Monday, accounting for nearly 100,000 seats, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.
British Airways made at least one round trip from London Heathrow, and EasyJet canceled flights to and from Bristol.
Both Madrid and Lisbon Airports were severely affected as the impact of the interruption on arrival and departure resulted in victory. Thousands of passengers were booked on flights from the airport to Latin America, and Lisbon Airport announced that at the earliest, no flight could take off.
