Massive power outage, Spain and Portugal declare state of emergency, Prime Minister Sanchez: Everything happened in 5 seconds

The governments of Spain and Portugal have declared a state of emergency after massive power outages today, as grid operators were struggling to restore electricity supplies in both countries by the evening.

Spain's Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, declared a state of emergency in the regions of Andalusia, Extremadura, Murcia, La Rioja and Madrid.

After an overnight cabinet meeting, Portugal declared a state of energy crisis.

"We have learned of a general blackout in the electricity grid, which originated outside our territory, most likely in Spain," Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said in a televised address.

Montenegro said a government crisis office has been established to manage the "unprecedented" situation and called on citizens to reduce energy consumption until authorities fully restore power supplies.

At midnight almost 50% of Spain's electricity supply was restored after a massive power outage today, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said tonight.

While the cause of the outage is still unknown, the grid operator has determined that it occurred when 15 gigawatts of power were suddenly lost in just five seconds, according to Sánchez.

“This is something that has never happened before,” he said. “To give you an idea, 15 gigawatts is equal to about 60% of the country’s demand at that moment.”

Spain will try to restore electricity supplies across the country by Tuesday morning, but the prime minister admitted that officials still cannot say for sure when everything will return to normal.

"The situation is very asymmetrical across the country. Some autonomous communities have recovered up to 97% of their supply, while others, unfortunately, are below 15%," he said.

Electricity has been restored to 2.5 million customers in Portugal after today's outage, the National Energy Network (REN) said.

Technicians have also restored power to 85 of 89 substations, according to REN.

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