An inquiry by the Spanish Senate blames the government, as well the country’s grid operator and energy watchdog, for last year’s unprecedented blackout, according to preliminary conclusions made public on Wednesday.
The probe by the upper house – which is controlled by the opposition People’s Party (PP) – is the first to assign blame for the outage that plunged large parts of Spain and Portugal into darkness for up to 16 hours on April 28, 2025.
The nine‑month investigation said the blackout was not an unforeseeable accident, but rather caused by long‑standing structural weaknesses that were already known.
“The blackout was the result of a known vulnerability, of a system that had been sending warnings for some time, and of a failure to act with the required diligence,” PP senator Alicia Garcia told reporters.
The preliminary report cited repeated voltage swings in the weeks and months leading up to the blackout as evidence of mounting problems in the electricity system.
The Senate commission held grid operator Red Electrica, a unit of Redeia, and the Energy Ministry primarily responsible for the outage, while also criticizing energy and antitrust regulator CNMC for what it described as regulatory and supervisory inaction.
The inquiry heard testimonies from dozens of witnesses, including Energy Minister Sara Aagesen, Redeia chair Beatriz Corredor and CNMC head Cani Fernandez.
The final report is due later this week, though no changes to the preliminary conclusions are expected. (Editor’s note: This Reuters article was originally published on April 15.)
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Pietro Lombardi; editing by David Latona)
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