Estela Silva/Lusa
We retained to the century. XIX: After all, what happened?
It was something unprecedented what happened this Monday, April 28, in Portugal-and not only.
At about 11:30 am, the whole country “went out”. Without Wi-Fi or network on mobile phones, this would become the smallest of problems in the country.
Trains and meters stopped Suddenly, with some passengers panicking in Lisbon, in underground carriages. Airports also stopped, with TAP asking passengers not to move to the airport.
On the streets, the traffic lights deleted They were the biggest problem, causing chaos in traffic. The PSP reinforced the device to control traffic. To the stores could not accept cards For payments, supermarkets closed and a race for water, radios and batteries, with reports-already denied by REN-that the general blackout could last up to 3 days.
Nos hospitalsfuel -powered generators endured the fort. Surgeries and other not urgent notes were canceled.
According to the head of the European Commission, this was “One of the biggest electrical system failures in recent years” on the EU.
Portugal was not the only affected country. Spain, France, Andorra and Germany They were also “dark”. In Spain, a state of emergency was decreed: our neighbor “retreated to the nineteenth century,” wrote in the chaos of the dark.
We were alone. Two centrals saved the day
In Portugal, the Bode Castle Centrals (Tomar) and Tapada do Outeiro (Gondomar) saved the dayby replenishing the power grid, which without the help of Spain, resumed to normal much more slowly. Unlike Spain, which benefited from the support of the French and Moroccan networks to accelerate supply replacement, Portugal was alone.
These two units are the only ones in the Portuguese electrical system that allow a “black start” – That is, starting without depending on net tension. It was by the proximity of Outeiro that the Greater Porto region recovered the energy faster than Lisbon, which at 10:30 pm already had light in most of the dwellings, but whose energy replacement was still underway.
However, by the end of the afternoon, when the sun was preparing to lie down, it was shortly lightly through the country, and people began to celebrate the windows as electricity returned.
After a day marked by electricity failures in various areas of the country, the energy is slowly returning and was received with applause. In Odivelas, in the Cruzeiro hills, neighbors joined the windows to celebrate the return of light.
— CNN Portugal (@cnnportugal)
But after all, what happened?
What we know and what we don’t know
For now, there is no official confirmation about what happened. “Nothing is away”but we know that “the origin was not in Portugal”.
The hypothesis of computer attack to the European network was not ruled out, although Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said in the afternoon “there was no evidence” of attack.
“Nothing is away,” explained Luís Montenegro, but “everything points” that the origin of the energy failure is in Interconnection with Spain.
It is known that moments before 11:33 Strong oscillation of tensions in the Spanish networkat a time when Portugal was importing energy – which is usually done to take advantage of lower prices and led to the shot of the power plant protection systems, possibly causing the overall collapse.
“We know that The origin was not in Portugal. We have our interconnection with Spain and it all points out that this is where this whole situation originated, but I don’t want to be speculating, ”said Montenegro, adding to be a joint work with the Spanish government.
Intelligence services are also seeking to realize the origin of this situation, and the hypothesis of cyber attack is not yet removed.
“I believe it is important to say that Not at allbut there is no indication that points out in this regard, ”concluded Montenegro.
The executive vice president of the European Commission Teresa Ribera also said there were no evidence of cybership in the mass cut in the electrical supply in the Iberian Peninsula.
“We are not discarding anything at the moment, but There is no evidence of any kind of cybersecurity problem. We are aware of everything and the main priority is, of course, to restore the electrical system and to evaluate and understand what happened, ”said the official in Brussels.
It may have been a technical failure in Spain. For now, there is no conclusive information about the cause, also guaranteed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who underlines: the authorities do not rule out any theory.
Also António Costa, president of the European Council, said there is no evidence of Ciberataque at X.
Ren also does not yet know the cause and explained at 8 pm that “total standardization is difficult to predict.”
“They can be a thousand and one causesIt is premature to be making an assessment, ”says the REN administrator.
Both Sánchez and Montenegro asked for responsibility for the use of energy by the population: he asked for brief calls, performed only when necessary.
Much false information to circulate
From the moment the energy failed, false information about the cause of the failure began to circulate.
It was spoken in a fire in southwest France as being responsible for the blackout, but the French electricity companies denied this information.
Ren quickly denied information that the system could take a week to normalize and also dismissed the hypothesis of atmospheric phenomena as the cause of the problem.
There were also those who saw online information that a plane drew a critical place of energy supply, something that didn’t happen either.
A video circulated on the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to confirm that it had been a cybers, but this information is also false.
Ren remembered later tonight that it is not true that Portugal is dependent on Spain to have energy. “The Portuguese system will seek energy from Spain because it is cheaper,” explained João Conceição.
Tomás Guimarães, Zap //
