Description: Most of Spain, Portugal and some southern regions in France suffered major power outages which disrupted public transportation, caused severe mobile network signal shortages and forced air traffic controllers to ground airplanes. Speculations regarding the cause of the outages quickly arose, as energy infrastructure experts warned it may have been a severe cyberattack. Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez and his Portuguese colleague Luis Montenegro, warned against misinforming the public until the exact cause of the outages is determined. The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has stated that a grid overload from alternative sources of electric power such as wind turbines and solar farms may have caused the outages through excess in electricity generation throughout major power lines. The latest reports saw state energy distributors in both countries such as Red Electrica and REN slowly recovering power distribution in major cities across both countries.
Impact: One of Europe’s major power outages incidents served as a stark reminder of Europe’s consistent problems with energy supply. Speculations about the overuse of alternative energy sources also raises concerns regarding the intertwined codependence between traditional sources of energy and modern campaigning revolving around the use of sustainable sources. With the cause for the outages still unknown, the incidents display the severe dependence European countries have on various sources of energy which are evidently not adequately incorporated within the national energy grids. These kinds of disruptions showcase considerable energy infrastructure vulnerabilities which could be exploited by adversarial positioned countries towards Europe such as Russia. The outages also emphasized Europe’s miscoordination on a strategic level, especially accentuating protection and security around critical infrastructure.