If it happened once, why not twice? Of all the questions that continue to be asked almost a year after the massive power outage, this is among the most frequent: can the State be plunged into darkness again?

On April 28th last year, almost a year ago, traffic lights, televisions, internet... stopped working, and many rediscovered radio transistors and candles. An unusual and unprecedented event. A country in darkness in the 21st century. It gives the impression that, in many cases, almost twelve months after such an unprecedented event, the political battle and the rush to accuse each other have taken precedence over the interest in clarifying what circumstances caused the great blackout.

When less than a month remains until the first anniversary of the massive power outage that left the Iberian Peninsula without electricity for hours, more recordings of communications between Red Eléctrica, the Spanish electricity system operator, and some companies are emerging, which confirm that months before the incident there were already problems in the electricity grid. At the same time, the conversations highlight the instability of the system. All this is inferred from the transcriptions of the audios (to which ARA has had access) that Popular Party senators have requested within the framework of the investigation commission in the Senate – where the PP has an absolute majority – which is investigating that incident. This commission, in fact, has been marked by tension between the popular senators and some witnesses, as was the case of the president of Red Eléctrica, Beatriz Corredor.

When less than a month remains until the first anniversary of the massive power outage that left the Iberian Peninsula without electricity for hours, more recordings of communications between Red Eléctrica, the Spanish electricity system operator, and some companies are emerging, which confirm that months before the incident there were already problems in the electricity grid. At the same time, the conversations highlight the instability of the system. All this is inferred from the transcriptions of the audios (to which ARA has had access) that Popular Party senators have requested within the framework of the investigation commission in the Senate – where the PP has an absolute majority – which is investigating that incident. This commission, in fact, has been marked by tension between the popular senators and some witnesses, as was the case of the president of Red Eléctrica, Beatriz Corredor.

Roberto García Merino, CEO of Redeia – the parent company of Red Eléctrica – earned €2.054 million in 2025, a 165% increase compared to the €774,000 he received in 2024, after adding a long-term incentive, according to the compensation report published by the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) this Thursday. For Redeia, the company that operates the electricity transmission network in Spain, the year was marked by the massive blackout of April 28. However, excluding the incentive, the year-on-year change in compensation would be 8.7%. The average compensation for Redeia employees in 2025 was €75,000, in line with the previous year. For her part, the company's president, Beatriz Corredor, received a salary of €546,000 in 2025, the same amount as in 2024. In fact, Corredor has been receiving the same annual salary for five years.

Endesa will invest a total of €10.6 billion between 2026 and 2028, the company announced on Tuesday, presenting its strategic plan for the next two years. Of that investment, 5.5 billion euros will go to the distribution network (52% of the total), according to the company. This investment plan is the company's largest in the last twelve years (since it began operating solely in the Iberian Peninsula), exceeding the previous strategic plan for 2024-2026, which amounted to €9.6 billion, by 10%. The company has also submitted its 2025 results to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). These results have surpassed the upper end of forecasts for both gross profit (EBITDA) – €5.756 billion, up 9% – and net ordinary profit – which grew by 18% to €2. The company will propose increasing the dividend to be distributed to its shareholders by 20% more than previously planned (€1.30), to €1.58 per share. This figure is also 20% higher than the dividend distributed in the previous year and represents a dividend yield of over 5% for the year.

The legal battle between Iberdrola and Redeia, the parent company of Red Eléctrica (REE), the system operator, over the massive blackout of April 28th of last year, has been reignited. A Madrid court has accepted the complaint for unfair competition filed by the electricity company chaired by Ignacio Sánchez Galán, alleging that Redeia, although not explicitly naming it, held it responsible for the blackout, according to reports. El País-Cinco Días And ARA has been able to confirm this.

More than 1 billion euros. That's the investment that the European Investment Bank (EIB), the financing arm for EU projects, allocated in 2025 to the state railways, which are now under scrutiny following the tragic accidents in Adamuz and Gelida. triggers of a virtually unprecedented service and reputational crisisOf this amount, €250 million was part of an agreement signed in December to improve the commuter rail fleet (specifically, 101 trains), as detailed by the president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and former Spanish Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, this Monday. In fact, this is the first tranche of a €500 million loan that will be fully disbursed in the future, she explained. The data was released on the same day that the EIB detailed its investment in Spain for 2025, as well as its global investment plans. The institution reiterated that it invests based on the "demands" of its member states. In the case of the transport sector as a whole, it allocated €1.5 billion, representing 13.6% of the total investment in Spain: €11 billion throughout 2025, to which must be added an additional €2.9 billion from the Resilience Fund linked to European anti-pandemic funds. In total, investment in Spain represents 14% of the EIB's overall budget in 2025.

On April 28th of last year, Spain and Portugal were plunged into darkness in the largest mass blackout in European history. Subsequently, data provided by electricity distributors revealed that the electrical grid is operating at over 80% capacity. Now, industrial engineers in Catalonia have issued a warning: the "critical situation" of the distribution network jeopardizes the economy, industry, and even the energy transition itself.

The electricity system has lost nearly 2.8 gigawatts (GW) of available capacity in just two months – between October and November 2025 – leaving much of the country without the technical capacity for new projects, according to an analysis by Forum Industria y Energía (FIE) and Opina 360 from the electricity sector, which puts the saturation level at 85.7%. Specifically, the study, using data from December 1st, has expanded its scope to include 6,108 substations belonging to the 29 largest distributors in the country, which account for 97% of supply points. According to the data, the estimated saturation rate has risen from 82.4% to 85.7%, meaning that 5,235 substations no longer have available capacity. In terms of power, the drop is also significant, falling from over 10 GW available in October to 7,363.2 MW, a loss of approximately 2.8 GW of available capacity in two months. This confirms that the demand for electrification and new industrial projects is consuming capacity. Thus, the Industry and Energy Forum and Opina 360 point to a scenario of increasing stress on grid access, where the margin for maneuver is narrowing and connection capacity is becoming an increasingly decisive factor for industrial planning.

Since the massive blackout on April 28, which left the entire Iberian Peninsula without electricity, the system operator, Red Eléctrica, has been operating in "boost mode." This mode consists, broadly speaking, of more than twenty combined cycle (gas-fired) plants remaining on idle. They do not generate electricity, but are available to be activated at any time, especially if demand soars and renewables cannot meet it, or if, once again, technical problems are detected in the system.

Enric Brazís Caubet (Palma, 1969), an industrial engineer with a specialization in ESADE, is the director of Endesa in Catalonia, the region's leading electricity company in both generation and distribution and marketing. The distribution network, specifically, is in the spotlight, both due to the massive blackout on April 28th and user complaints about access.

The path to replacing a portion of the industry with the fossil fuels it currently uses fully involves electrification, or at least that's the State's commitment. However, this requires that the infrastructure that enables the consumption of electricity be prepared for this change, but also for the arrival of new industrial activities that will push up electricity demand. That's why the proposed electricity grid planning for 2026-2030, with an investment of €13.6 billion (a breakdown by region has not yet been established), will be key. This Thursday, the Ministry for Ecological Transition put the document up for public hearing, and it will remain there until December 16. The Catalan Government will initially present its observations, according to sources within the Catalan government.

The Spanish government approved this Tuesday a series of measures to increase the resilience of the electricity grid in the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands, with a planned investment of 750 million euros. According to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, the list includes 65 actions aimed at incorporating additional tools into the grids to facilitate voltage control and stability against fluctuations.

Amid the crossfire over responsibility for the massive power outage of April 28, Red Eléctrica, the operator of the Spanish electricity system, has confronted its shareholders, who were scheduled to participate in a new virtual general meeting on Monday, and has not hesitated to defend itself: "[On April 28] they will [company, Beatriz Corredor, who during her initial intervention of almost an hour reiterated that Red Eléctrica "rigorously" complied with the regulations.

One day after the Spanish government committee's report on the massive power blackout was made public, the system operator, Red Eléctrica, presented its conclusions. The shadow of responsibility, or at least part of it, for what happened on April 28th still hangs over it. (Power lines, transformers, stations, etc.) It also published a report detailing what happened that caused the Iberian Peninsula to be without power for so many hours. However, the operator has made it clear that the investigation was conducted without all the information and points the finger directly at the major power companies. "All the information received from third parties was of the desired quality and was not sufficiently complete," said Red Eléctrica president Beatriz Corredor at a press conference on Wednesday.

More than a month after the massive power outage that affected the Iberian Peninsula, the mystery surrounding the incident is not the only one arising. Solving the puzzle of the blackout's cause has added a battle for transparency, but also the question of who will assume the expected multi-million-dollar claims for the power outage suffered by businesses and families for more than eight hours. These are two fronts that have only escalated in recent days.

Redeia, the parent company of Red Eléctrica de España and 20% controlled by the State through SEPI, has proposed the incorporation of Albert Castellanos, close to the ERC (Republic of Catalonia) and former Secretary of Business and Competitiveness during the Pere Aragonès government. Redeia has called a general shareholders' meeting for June 30th -with the massive blackout still as a background-, at which it will also propose, in addition to Castellanos, the entry of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the first government of Pedro Sánchez, Arancha González Laya, as a proprietary director (at the proposal of Fabra, former director of Enagás until the last meeting of the company, as an independent director.

The blackout on Monday, April 28, was a gray swan event. It was an unexpected event that made us aware of our enormous dependence on electricity, but it was on the radar as a possibility. The electricity grid operator itself, Red Eléctrica de España (REE), declared the blackout exceptional and completely extraordinary, but in February, in its parent company Redeia's annual report to the National Securities Market Commission, it had already warned investors that the high penetration of renewable energy (in 2024) in the grid would affect the electricity supply. According to REE, this was a probable risk in the short and medium term that would lead to an imbalance between generation and demand. Furthermore, in 2023, REE itself and the National Commission on Markets and Competition had already warned of a risk of a blackout due to overvoltage (with a greater energy flow than the transmission grid can handle). Furthermore, REE had indicated that it did not have sufficient tools to prevent grid tensions. Well, ruling out a cyberattack, this appears to be what happened on April 28th, shortly after 12:30 p.m., when photovoltaic plants were disconnected, causing the frequency to drop below 50 Hz and increasing voltage, destabilizing the grid. The firewalls didn't work, and France disconnected shortly after. The result was a "fuse trip," and 15 gigawatts of generation (approximately 60% of the electricity being consumed) were suddenly lost.

The maze of the April 28th power outage appears to be beginning to unravel. On the one hand, the beginning of the incident is now defined in the provinces of Granada, Badajoz, and Seville—a few days ago, the Spanish government already focused on the southwest of the country. On the other hand, it has been ruled out that the Spanish electricity system operator, Red Eléctrica, suffered a cyberattack. Both conclusions were anticipated this Wednesday by the Third Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, during her appearance in the Congress of Deputies to account for the electrical incident that For hours it left the entire Iberian Peninsula without supplies.