At 12:33 local time on April 28, a power outage reportedly prompted by extreme temperature variations in interior Spain hit the entire Iberian Peninsula. Major cities in Spain and Portugal such as Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, and Lisbon were impacted by the outage. Parts of southwest France’s Basque Country were also temporarily without power, but electricity supply to this area was promptly restored. The outage caused chaos in the production and logistics sectors, with notable disruptions to Spain’s and Portugal’s air and rail transport, and automotive and chemicals manufacturing. Spain’s national power grid operator Red Eléctrica de España reports that restoration efforts are underway, with 99% of the power supply in the country recovered by the morning of April 29. Portugal’s national power distributor E-Redes had initially reported that the full resumption of services could take up to one week to achieve. However, Portuguese authorities later reported that they expect the country to be operating as normal on April 29.
Power outage creates chaos for ocean, air, and ground logistics
The regional power outage temporarily halted logistics operations in both Spain and Portugal. Operational disruptions were reported at major transport hubs, including Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado International Airport (IATA: LIS), Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas International Airport (IATA: MAD), and Barcelona’s Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat International Airport (IATA: BCN). Due to a ground stop that was implemented following the power outage, 75% of the day’s scheduled departures from the affected airports were either delayed or canceled. Aviation authorities in Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon gradually resumed the acceptance of inbound flights at a reduced rate of 50% while powered by backup generators. The airport in Lisbon reopened its terminals to departing passengers at 20:30 local time, roughly nine hours after the power was lost. The flight backlogs and aircraft diversions at affected airports will likely cause aviation disruptions throughout the week.
Nationwide rail services were abruptly paralyzed in Spain due to the outage, while in Portugal, a previously planned rail workers strike had already halted rail passenger and freight operations. Spain’s Ministry of Transportation announced that medium and long-distance trains will not resume services for at least 24 hours. Further, the loss of electricity has caused chaos on the roads, prompting authorities to urge residents to avoid movement as a safety precaution. In Madrid, authorities shut down the M-30 tunnel system due to the failure of traffic lights prompting security concerns. 833 vehicles were reported in the tunnels, which total over 43 kilometers and are designed to accommodate both passenger vehicles and cargo trucks weighing less than 7.5 tons. Sources have not indicated when the tunnels will reopen to traffic.
Two of Spain’s ports activated emergency plans to mitigate impacts from the outage. The Port Authority of Valencia and the Port Authority of Vigo have activated emergency controls to guarantee continuity of operations using generators. Though the ports have both temporarily ceased crane operations, berthing and unberthing tasks at the terminals remain uninterrupted. At the Port of Algeciras, maritime traffic for trucks was suspended due to the outage affecting the customs system, with services only beginning to return to normal on April 29. Carriers had been asked to avoid Spain’s second biggest seaport during the outage.
Spain’s automotive and petrochemicals sectors halt production
The power outage has affected areas with a high concentration of industrial activity, such as Spain’s industrial zones of Navarre, Almussafes, Martorell, and Valladolid. These areas are home to production clusters of OEMs in the automotive sector. Volkswagen Navarra, S.A. halted production at its factory in Cendea de Olza, located in the Navarre Industrial Zone, while Ford Motor Co. took the same measure at its plant in the industrial zone in Almussafes, Valencia. Similarly, in the industrial zone of Martorell, in Catalonia, the SEAT S.A. plant halted production, and in that of Valladolid, Castilla and Leon, truck manufacturer Iveco S.p.A. halted production. Elsewhere in Spain, the automotive sector responded similarly, with production halts announced at the Stellantis N.V. factory in Figueruelas, the EV Motors and Chery factory in Barcelona, and the Iveco S.p.A. factory in Madrid.
Spain’s petrochemicals sector saw notable disruptions as well as operations ceased at several refineries across the country. This included shutdowns of all units at Repsol’s Petronor subsidiary’s 220,000 ton per year (t/yr) Bilbao refinery, Moeve’s 250,000 t/yr San Roque base oils plant, and at Repsol’s 135,000 barrel per day (b/d) La Coruna refinery. As part of a security stoppage common at refineries, black smoke and flaring were activated at the sites when the power was cut. While some companies such as SEAT S.A., Stellantis N.V., Renault S.A., and Repsol S.A. have managed to resume operations following the restoration of power supply, it remains unclear how long it will take many of the other affected companies to return to normal production levels.
Everstream clients are receiving more detailed insights and recommendations about this risk.
Don’t miss key supply chain risk updates! Subscribe now to get supply chain news, weather updates, forecasts, and other insights.