Spain's largest blackout on the record shaved nearly € 400 million from the economy, said Spain's largest domestic bank, after an hour's power cutting stopped shopping and traveling in most of the mainland.
Caixabank studies card payments, online orders, and cash removal. It was found that consumer spending on Sunday, April 28th, fell 34% during the blackout. Some expenditure returns late on Sunday, but the loss of the net is still 15%.
“We estimate that Blackout will have a one-off effect on the quarterly GDP of less than one-ten of a percentage point, less than € 400 million,” the bank said.
The power blackout took place around 12:30 at the local time. Nearly 50 million people in Spain and Portugal lost power, damaged trains, phones, and stores. Madrid is still examining the cause of the blackout. Grid operator Red Eléctrica said two separate errors combined to overthrow the system.
Bloomberg The direct dent is placed in about 0.5% of the quarterly GDP, even if part of it should be recovered. Although, Spain is still expected to grow by 2.6% this year and 2.2% in 2026.
“Blackout is a wake-up call,” said Kristina Ruby, Secretary of Eurelectric. “It has shown that the need to modernize and strengthen the European electricity grid is urgent and inevitable.”
Half of European Union's electricity lines are over 40 years old. Demand from data centers, de -electrical cars, and rapid air and solar increases increase stress, as cyber risks continue.
The global expenditure on the renewables has been nearly twice as much since 2010, but the grid investment remained near $ 300 billion a year. The International Energy Agency said the figure should climb above $ 600 billion by 2030 – a jumping required for replacement, digital care, and thousands of kilometers of new lines.
EU grids require upgrades worth dollars trillion to prevent such blackouts
Spain accelerated its green shift after Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022. In 2024, renewables supplied 56% of Spain's electricity. Throughout the EU, the part rose to 47% last year from 34% in 2019, the Ember data is displayed. Fossil fuels fell to 29% from 39%.
Wind and solar power plants can be built for a few years, but new high-voltage lines often last a decade. Brussels estimated the total grid bill of up to $ 2.3 trillion in 2050. European companies spent nearly € 80 billion in the grids last year-from € 50-70 billion scope saw earlier, BRUEGEL analysts said-but annual investment may be required to reach € 100 billion.
Connections to neighbors are skinny. Only 5% of Spain's capacity can move across the Iberian Peninsula, which is below the EU goal of 15% of 2030. A new French link under the Bay of Biscay is planned, with extra lines in Morocco.
The back-up generation is another challenge
Solar and air form direct current power, which should be alternating currently using inverters. If the grid frequency drops under 50 hertz, the safety devices cut the power. Therefore, if the generation of electricity decreases, the grids will require back-up AC power. If a lot of plants decrease, it will lead to a blackout.
Spain plans to close all seven nuclear reactors by 2035, a move official said the power supply could rot. Portugal, on the other hand, relies on a gas and a hydro plant that can start quickly, and prime minister Luís Montenegro is more than willing.
Other countries face similar challenges. A lightning strike in Britain in 2019, along with a separate fault, cut power over a million customers. The United Kingdom has since raised battery storage to about 5 gigawatts.
Europe in total has 10.8 gawinatts and can reach 50 gawinatts by 2030. That is only a fraction of the required 200 gawinatts, according to the European Association for energy storage. In Ireland, Siemens Energy is installed the world's largest flywheel that works as electricity storage and stabilizes the grid.
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