Spain announces the causes of the blackout as official report is finished
The widespread blackout in Spain in April has been attributed to a “multifactorial energy failure”, not a cyberattack
Spain experienced an unprecedented nationwide power outage on April 28, 2025, leaving large parts of the country without electricity for a full day or more, in some cases.
The findings of the official investigation into the blackout were released this Tuesday afternoon, June 17, by the Ministry for Ecological Transition. According to Minister Sara Aagesen, the event was not the result of a cyberattack, but rather a complex cascade of technical failures and vulnerabilities.
The report, which the minister described as being bound by both transparency and confidentiality, revealed that contradictory and incomplete data hampered the investigation.
“We have come across information that in the end has not arrived,” Aagesen stated. “These omissions have been made explicit in the report.”
To respect privacy regulations, the version of the report released to the public has been anonymised. Still, it outlines the root of the crisis: an energy zero triggered by an imbalance between synchronous and asynchronous power supplies, which ultimately led to the collapse of the system.
While ruling out a cyberattack incident, the report did highlight several technical vulnerabilities. Aagesen acknowledged the presence of “shortcomings” and “misconfigurations” in security protocols that left key systems exposed to potential future risks.
These flaws, combined with episodes of overvoltage, oscillations, and the disconnection of power plants, contributed to what she called a “multifactorial” failure.
In response to the crisis, Aagesen, who also holds the post of third vice-president of the government, announced that a decree law will be approved next week. The measure aims to strengthen oversight and improve the resilience of Spain’s energy infrastructure, in an effort to prevent similar incidents in the future.
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