The blackout: chickpeas, uncertainty and misinformation
On the blackout of 28 April in the Iberian Peninsula, uncertainty and the danger of misinformation. And my chickpeas.
Today, I'm going a little different from my usual cartographic routine. Last Monday, 28 April, there was a historic blackout in the Iberian Peninsula, and I wanted to talk about it. About the uncertainty and misinformation, but I'll also include some costumbrism1 and a few maps to help you understand the electricity grid a little better.
Last Monday, like any other workday, at around 12:30 p.m., I was preparing lunch. Although this is a common time in most parts of the world, I might be one of the few Spaniards who eats so early. That said, I like to brag about it. I was finishing up some chickpeas when suddenly the power went out. Here comes a funny part of the story. Throughout last week, the RCD tripped repeatedly: five times on Sunday, four times on Wednesday, and several more on Thursday. The electrician came by on Wednesday to have a look, and on Friday to fix it2.
Given that, you can imagine how annoyed I was. It hadn't even been three days since he fixed it, and it was already failing again. Imagine my surprise when I got to the electrical fuse box and saw that the RCD hadn't tripped. I looked out into the hallway of the apartment building, and saw that there was no light there either. Quickly, many messages started coming in, curiously in a very timely order. First, a neighbour in a WhatsApp group asked if we had power at home. Then, a friend who lives across the street commented that his power was also out. Subsequently, a nephew who lives about a kilometre away, a friend who lives in a village on the outskirts, and then my sister saying that there was no power in Madrid either3.
Damn. This was serious.
But lunch was half done, so I had to take advantage of the fact that the chickpeas were hot. I added some yoghurt sauce I had prepared and ate it down4.
The television wasn't available, so while I was eating the chickpeas, I was thinking about how I was going to connect to the meeting I had at 1:00 p.m. The data on my phone was working fine and my work laptop still had battery, so I thought that would be enough. But of course, the mobile phone network is what it is. I managed to let my colleagues know that there was a major power outage in part of Spain and that I might not be able to finish the meeting. And well, I was right. The mobile network became so unstable that everything cut out in just five minutes.
I checked my messages again and saw that I had friends all over Spain saying they had no power5. In fact, no one was saying otherwise. I logged into Bluesky and started to get a feel for the situation. It seemed that Red Eléctrica de España had already confirmed that the outage was serious and that it would take time to restore the system. I noticed that I had a message from my mother saying she was worried. With nothing else to do, and having been one of the few Spaniards who had eaten a hot meal last Monday, I decided to take a walk and go see how my parents were doing.
Uncertainty and misinformation
A few months ago, I shared the terrible story of the Kantō earthquake of 1923. What interests me most about that story is not the earthquake and the great fire that followed, but how the uncertainty affected the population. A year before the first radio station was founded in Japan, there was no reliable way to stay informed, so the population's imagination ran wild in the most terrible way possible.
Japan had occupied Korea in 1910, and since then, a significant resistance movement had formed, seeking to regain independence. That simple premise caused a rumour to spread like wildfire, blaming Koreans for taking advantage of the earthquake to set fire to the city and steal. The Japanese population not only embraced this rumour, but it was a direct consequence of at least 200 Koreans being killed in the days following the earthquake.
And in case there is any doubt, it was not the Koreans who were responsible for the fire, but misinformation was to blame for their murdering.
On my way home to my parents' home, I had a lot of peace of mind. That's what usually happens to me when I can't do anything about a problem; it's one of my superpowers. But I am aware that not everyone's mind works the same way. Uncertainty can be overwhelming for many people. Like my mother, there were millions of Spanish and Portuguese people wondering what could have happened, how long it might last, and how all the people they couldn't contact were doing.
I often listen to music when I walk down the street, but on Monday I wanted to feel the atmosphere, to understand how people were feeling. There were groups at the doors of almost every shop, commenting on how they were unable to continue working because the payment terminals were down and almost everyone pays by card these days. I tried to help the owner of a jewellery shop lower the automatic shutter, but we couldn't figure out the way to activate the manual lock. But what struck me most was the number of people I heard speculating about what could have happened. All these possibilities, born of uncertainty:
Many people extended the impact of the blackout far beyond the Iberian Peninsula, consistently including France, but also Belgium, Italy, Greece, and even Germany.
Some vehemently claimed that the blackout had spread throughout Europe.
Undoubtedly, the big villain of the rumours was Putin. He was claimed to be the one behind what was happening.
One man said he had read on his mobile phone that los moros6 had attacked Spain because of Pedro Sánchez's foreign policy.
The most popular technique I heard was a cyberattack. It's certainly a buzzword, so I can understand why it caught on.
There were also those who commented on possible fires in stations that would have destabilised the electricity grid.
I heard all this in the 30 minutes it took me to get to my parents' house. During the rest of the day, I also heard people blaming electric cars, or even suggesting that it was something planned by Europe to see if we had listened and bought the famous survival kit from a few months ago7.
A century has passed since the Kantō earthquake, but that initial feeling is repeating itself. Without electricity, no one could turn on the television, and hardly any people had a battery-powered radio at home. The mobile network remained operational in some parts of Spain for a while, but as the antennas ran out of power8, the connection was completely lost. It was difficult to stay informed reliably, which made it much easier for people to give free rein to misinformation and embrace any theory that could bring a little peace to their uncertainty.
Fortunately, as the consequences of the blackout were not so serious9, the uncertainty did not give way to frustration, but the breeding ground was there. Unsurprisingly, some political parties have tried to take advantage of this rampant misinformation to campaign against the Spanish government. I am not referring to legitimate criticism of prevention or management, but rather to parties that have embraced many of the rumours and theories to strengthen their opposition stance.
What really happened
There are multiple electricity grids around the world covering territories of very different sizes. Within each of these large synchronised grids, electricity is transmitted at the same frequency.
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The Iberian Peninsula belongs to one of the largest networks in the world, which keeps the electricity grids of much of continental Europe, Turkey, and the Maghreb interconnected.
This interconnection between national power grids still has many limitations, despite the plans of the European Union. Currently, this interconnection between Europe works today as shown in this map from El Orden Mundial.
To understand the details within the Iberian Peninsula, El Orden Mundial has also published this other map.
The electricity grid operates in a continuous balance between supply and demand. To achieve this, consumption estimates are made upfront, and electricity operators plan energy generation accordingly. When this is achieved, the frequency of the grid remains stable, 50 Hz in the case of the European grid. If this is not achieved, imbalances in frequency occur, which the generators try to compensate for.
I found this analogy by Marta Victoria brilliant for explaining this effect. The frequency of the electricity grid is like a ship on which small imbalances are continuously compensated for, in the same way that the swaying of a ship on the high seas is compensated for. When energy demand falls and generation remains above demand, the frequency increases. If, on the other hand, a generator fails and demand remains the same, the frequency drops. These deviations are normally compensated for by the network's own generators so that the imbalance doesn’t feed back into the system and destabilises it.
What appears to have happened on 28 April 2025 in the Iberian Peninsula was that two large power supply points disconnected from the grid within 15 seconds10. As a result, the frequency became completely destabilised and some generators disconnected from the grid. The French grid disconnected from Spain, and the frequencies in Spain and Portugal became decoupled. As a result, the rocking boat ended up overturning.
Restoring a power grid of this size is no small effort. To ensure that the frequency remains stable, parts of the grid must be reconnected in a sustained manner, ensuring that the system remains balanced at all times. It has never been as simple as turning on the fuses in a house, although the complexity of the process might be difficult to understand.
Epilogue
After spending some time with my parents, I decided to go for a walk. I walked around the outskirts of Segovia and the city centre for more than four hours. I took the opportunity to think about things and, at the same time, tire my body a little in case the power didn't come back on before I went to bed. My prediction was correct, as we had to go to bed in Segovia without the power coming back on, and without even knowing where in Spain it had come back on. I didn't have a battery-powered radio at home, and the mobile network had completely gone down. However, I was able to read in bed with a small torch I found at home, which I strategically placed on my shoulder. I’m quite proud of that solution, that I might not ever use again.
At some point, I fell asleep. I know the power came back on shortly before 3:30 a.m. because the fridge started beeping, complaining about the heat it had accumulated throughout the day. I had to turn off the hallway light and the kitchen light, which had been left on thanks to our habit of flipping switches when entering a dark room, even if there is no electricity in the house. When I went back to bed after fixing the mess, in just a couple of minutes, I realised that my phone still had no data. The mobile network was still down and the home Wi-Fi didn't seem to have Internet access.
I woke up at 7:30 in the morning and took the opportunity to do all the electrical things I could think of. I used the clipper to trim my beard and hair, put a load of washing on, made myself a coffee with hot milk, and finished vacuuming. At 8:40 a.m., I still had no Internet at home or mobile network. And I had been completely cut off from the world for over 12 hours. It wasn't until then that I remembered that, even though I didn't have access to the Internet, I did have a television connected to an antenna, which I could use to find out what was going on.
After catching up and seeing that I still had no network, I decided to do the same thing I had done the day before. I went down to see my parents to see if they had Internet or mobile network at their home. I had to try to work at some point. I was lucky: their Internet was working, and not only was I able to work and justify my salary, but I also got to enjoy a cocido11 for lunch.
Two days of chickpeas in a row—you never get tired of something you like.
What you do get tired of is the lack of communication. The most striking thing about the blackout may have been the lack of light, but for someone who lives alone, the failure of the telecommunications system ends up weighing much more heavily.
Perhaps too much.
This is costumbrism, for those not familiar with it.
Now I have a resettable RCD, which is as well less sensitive to noise from my home electronics. In principle, the issue was addressed.
I live in Segovia, a hundred kilometres from Madrid.
A plate of chickpeas, cooked with plenty of onion and cumin, with a homemade yoghurt sauce, is a real delicacy. You have to try it. Cheap and easy to make.
I don't have any friends from the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla who wrote to me. The power supply kept running there.
This is a derogatory term used to refer to North Africans in many parts of Spain. Unfortunately, it is very widespread.
For the ones outside the European Union, I mean this kit.
Antennas in Spain usually have a battery that keeps them working for 4 to 6 hours without power supply.
Unfortunately, there have been casualties, so there is a certain seriousness that we cannot deny. At the time of writing, the death of a woman in Madrid has been confirmed due to a fire caused by a candle. Another woman has died in Valencia because she was unable to keep her ventilator running, and another family of three has died from gas poisoning from a generator they activated to keep a ventilator running.
This is the official information that has been provided at the time of writing, on 30 April 2025 at 00:00. From here on, take everything carefully and understand that the official information may change, depending on the analysis and what is discovered.