Gavin Grey: Europe Correspondent on the major blackout that impacted Spain, Portugal, and parts of France

Chaos for southwest Europe during a major power blackout. 

Spain, Portugal, and parts of France went dark yesterday due to an issue with the grid, originating in Spain.  

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says power has now been restored, and they will take all necessary measures to prevent a repeat. 

Correspondent Gavin Grey told Ryan Bridge cash registers, gas pumps, and credit cards all stopped working.  

He says it was a very hot day, and people were stuck in lifts and electric trains. 

Grey says plenty of other countries are now wondering if they’d be resilient enough if the same happened to them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Developing story for you this morning out of Sweden, a
shooting at a hear seal on. Kevin Gray are UK
europe correspondent with the latest givin What do we know?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, very sketchy details at the moment, Ryan, but we're
being told that potentially three people may have been killed.
Earlier reports suggested several, So it's probably somewhere in the middle,
I would have thought. As the news comes in. In Uppsala,
a city in Sweden, now it's reported that right in
the city center there were a series of loud cracks

(00:29):
and bangs indicating gunfire. Members of the public called the
police saying that were gunshots being fired, and several people
were found in and around the city center with injuries
and gunshot wounds. It's being reported police say they're calleding
off a large area of the city. There are gun
laws of course in Sweden, but I'm afraid. Back in February,

(00:52):
in another Swedish city, ten people were killed in the
country's deadliest ever mashed suiting. There, a thirty five year
old unemployed open fire on students and teachers at an
adult education said that we don't know much more about
today's shooting, that suffice to say, there'll be more questions
about tightening gun laws in Scandinavia.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Devin the Spain Portugal cyber Atteck, Well, not a cyber Atteck,
but a power cut. Now we know definitely not a
cyber Atteck. Is it possible that this weather thing could
happen again.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, that's the big fear, and I think lots of countries,
including the UK, thinking, well, hang on a minute, are
we sort of resilient enough to get through this if
it happened to us, Because let's not forget people were
stuck in lifts. The electric trains simply stopped mid stations
and you couldn't open the doors. It was a very
hot day yesterday in Spain and Portugal, and of course

(01:43):
the petrol pumps weren't working, and the cash registers weren't working,
and of course the credit cards weren't accepted, so all
of a sudden there was panic buying with cash. There
were cash machine queues that were very lengthy, but we
now look like that are very large. Drop energy equivalent
to sixty percent of the demand was suddenly lost from

(02:04):
the system. About fifteen gigawa was in just five second,
so there's been a press conference in which it said
there were two disconnection events barely a second apart in
southwest Spain when there is a substantial solar power generation.
So whether it is this effort to use green energy
that suddenly caused a problem for not just Spain but

(02:27):
Portugal and bits of France as well is another matter.
It does appin most of these properties that were disconnected,
of which there were a vast areas of Spain and
Portugal in particular, it does look like that has now
been reconnected. But this sudden drop in power is obviously
deeply worrying. A big investigation underway.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
All right, Gavin, appreciate your time. Gevin Gray are UK
Europe Correspondent.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
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