Sánchez praises Morocco’s role in swift power recovery after Spain’s unprecedented blackout

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reiterated on Wednesday the crucial role played by Morocco in restoring electricity swiftly to several parts of Spain following the massive blackout that struck on April 28.

Speaking before the Congress of Deputies, Sánchez said that combined-cycle plants, interconnections with both France and Morocco, and hydroelectric dams were instrumental in quickly re-establishing power during the first moments of the crisis.

Spanish authorities reported that the blackout caused the sudden loss of around 60% of the country’s electricity consumption—approximately 15 gigawatts—in just five seconds, labeling the incident as unprecedented.

According to a report by Spain’s electricity grid operator, the outage may have resulted from two nearly simultaneous events, just 1.5 seconds apart, with one suspected to have affected a solar power site in the country’s southwest.