Spain: Government takes 49 days to rule out blackout as a cyberattack

The Spanish government published a report on the blackout that occurred across the country on April 28, needing more than a month and a half (49 days to be exact) to give explanations to the country and to detail the alleged reasons that caused electrical activity to be paralyzed practically in the whole territory for more than 12 hours.

Said report was carried out by a commission of inquiry, so it is not judicial in nature.

In a press appearance, Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge Sara Aagesen reported that the blackout was the result of "a phenomenon of power surges" in the network that caused "a chain reaction."

"We have dedicated ourselves to studying what happened. We have fulfilled the mandate to identify the causes. ... The blackout of April 28 had a multi-factored origin. The system did not have sufficient dynamic voltage control capacity," the minister said, adding that some companies disconnected their power plants from the system "inappropriately to protect their facilities."

"Once this chain reaction started, the power surge disconnections and their voltage would only have been possible with a huge capacity to regulate voltage, and precisely that was missing in the system, the capacity to regulate voltage," Aagesen explained.

The minister of ecological transition and demographic challenge used her speech to promise that "what infrastructure will be reinforced" and that "what can be improved" will be reviewed. "It is a report that should be understood as a tool for analysis and, above all, as a tool for action," she concluded.

Cyberattack ruled out

That blackout, which lasted more than half a day, caused an absolute collapse across the country, paralyzing work activity completely. The VOZ newsroom in Madrid was also affected. The crisis not only affected Spain, but also Portugal, Andorra and areas of southern France.

In the following days, with the network fully restored, it was time to analyze the causes of the blackout, which, with the report by the investigating commission, seem to have been clarified. One of the main hypotheses put forward was a cyberattack.

Regarding this idea, Aagesen assured that it was not sabotage, although she acknowledged that there are "vulnerabilities" where cybercriminals can attack, hence her promise to strengthen networks.

"There is no evidence of cyberattack in the operator or in the different systems, but there are vulnerabilities that can expose the networks to future risks," the minister said. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, whose country also suffered the consequences of the blackout, also pointed to this possibility.

Another reason speculated on was a grid failure caused by an "experiment" with renewable energy, as cited by the British newspaper The Telegraph. Spain is one of the biggest advocates of the climate policies that are part of Agenda 2030, promoting renewable energy with the aim of burying nuclear power.