Power has been fully restored in southwestern France following a widespread blackout on Monday that also plunged large parts of Spain and Portugal into darkness, according to France’s national grid operator, RTE.
Describing the disruption as a “major outage” across the Iberian Peninsula, RTE confirmed that electricity was briefly lost in France’s Basque Country, near the Spanish border. The outage, which lasted only a few minutes in France, was not linked to a reported fire in the country’s south, the operator clarified.
RTE emphasized that France’s power supply and demand balance remained unaffected throughout the incident. However, the Iberian electrical grid was automatically disconnected from the wider European network between 12:38 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. local time (1038–1130 GMT), triggering cascading effects across the region.
While the exact cause of the outage remains under investigation, RTE said its emergency response teams were immediately deployed and worked in close coordination with Spain’s grid operator to assist with power restoration efforts.
As of Monday afternoon, RTE reported that 700 megawatts of Spanish electricity consumption had been restored via France, helping stabilize the situation as recovery continues across the Iberian Peninsula.
The incident comes amid rising concerns about grid vulnerabilities in the face of extreme weather events and growing energy demands.
