April 28, 2025 Blackout in Spain: Iberdrola vs. Red Eléctrica
On April 28, 2025, more than 50 million people in Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France were affected by one of the most severe blackouts in the recent history of the European electricity system. What began as a sudden midday disconnection ended up leaving major capitals, such as Madrid, Lisbon, and Barcelona, without power for hours.
The incident not only caused chaos among citizens and businesses but also triggered a political and technical storm between two key players in the Spanish energy system: Iberdrola and Red Eléctrica de España (REE). Both companies pointed fingers at each other for the failure, exposing the tensions in the current energy transition process.
What happened on April 28?
Everything started around 12:30 p.m., when an anomaly not yet fully explained caused a massive disconnection of the Iberian electricity system from continental Europe. The failure created a frequency imbalance in the grid, triggering automatic protections that disconnected key lines to prevent a larger collapse.
The result was a massive blackout affecting cities such as Madrid, Valencia, Lisbon, Seville, Porto, and Zaragoza. Service restoration began gradually around 7:00 p.m. in some regions but continued until the early hours of April 29 in others.
Although there were no casualties, the impact was significant: hospitals and critical services operated with generators, railway services were suspended, and many industries had to halt production. The economic damage is estimated in hundreds of millions of euros.
Clash of accusations: Iberdrola vs. Red Eléctrica
The CREO 2025 forum, held in Madrid just weeks after the blackout, became the stage for a direct clash between Iberdrola and Red Eléctrica de España (REE), highlighting the growing tension between the main actors of the Spanish electricity system.
Iberdrola: “Operator failed to anticipate”
Ignacio Galán, president of Iberdrola, used his speech to harshly criticize REE’s operational management during the incident. According to Galán, the system operator failed to anticipate a scenario that, although complex, was foreseeable:
“The Spanish electricity system is not prepared to manage a grid dominated by renewables without significant investments in grid intelligence and storage.”
From Iberdrola’s perspective, the combination of a sudden drop in wind power—caused by low wind speeds in the central-northern zone—and an unexpected increase in demand due to a heat spike required more decisive preventive action. They claim that REE did not activate backup mechanisms such as spinning reserves or demand response at the right time, allowing the imbalance to grow to unsustainable levels.
Galán also highlighted a structural problem: the lack of investment in energy storage technologies, such as industrial-scale batteries or pumped storage plants, which could have acted as system buffers.
Red Eléctrica: “Iberdrola disrupted the grid balance”
The response from Beatriz Corredor, REE’s president, was swift. During her speech, Corredor rejected the lack-of-anticipation accusations and directly blamed Iberdrola for contributing to the collapse through inadequate management of its generation park:
“We detected uncommunicated deviations in the production of several plants, which caused a critical imbalance in the grid.”
According to REE, Iberdrola changed its production levels without properly informing the operator, violating established dispatch and scheduling protocols. This unexpected alteration disrupted the balance between generation and demand, forcing REE to activate emergency measures within seconds.
Corredor also warned about the risks of operating in such a complex electrical environment without transparent communication between generators and operators:
“Decarbonization requires shared responsibility. The energy transition cannot be executed with 20th-century models.”
REE defended that, in the critical situation, its infrastructure functioned as expected, containing the blackout within the Iberian system and preventing wider spread. They also reiterated their commitment to deploying a more digitized and flexible grid, but warned that without a stricter coordination framework with market participants, such episodes could recur.
Structural tension in the energy transition
This exchange highlights a larger problem: the institutional and technical fragility of the current electricity management model. The coexistence of multiple actors with divergent interests (generators, operators, retailers, consumers) in an increasingly volatile and decentralized environment demands urgent review of coordination protocols.
While Iberdrola insists the solution requires greater investment in smart infrastructure and storage, REE emphasizes the need for strict operational discipline and stronger regulatory oversight to prevent unilateral decisions from compromising overall system stability.
The April 28 blackout revealed several weaknesses:
- Lack of flexibility and immediate response capacity.
- Poor coordination between generation and system operation.
- Obsolete infrastructure in certain grid sections.
- Dependence on unpredictable weather conditions.
Additionally, it becomes evident that digitalization and energy storage are no longer optional but essential to prevent future episodes like this.
Citizens and self-consumption as part of the solution
Consumer associations, such as FACUA, have denounced the lack of official communication during the early hours of the blackout. They also urged the government to promote measures that accelerate self-consumption and energy decentralization:
- Incentives for residential solar self-consumption.
- Implementation of community microgrids.
- Real-time transparency of electricity system data.
Countries such as Denmark and Germany already have open digital platforms that allow citizens and companies to access real-time grid data, enabling better demand management and greater public trust.
Lessons from Spain’s major blackout
Beyond the blame game, the April 2025 blackout should be seen as an early warning about the challenges of the energy transition.
Priority measures that should be implemented include:
- Improve operational coordination between generators and operators.
- Invest in large-scale energy storage technologies.
- Adapt the regulatory framework to a distributed and digital grid.
- Strengthen protocols for electrical emergency response.
Iberdrola and Red Eléctrica, though with differing views, share the responsibility of ensuring the system evolves into a more resilient, flexible, and transparent model.
