Iberian Blackout: A “Wake-Up Call for Europe”

By Luke King

The massive blackouts that hit the Iberian Peninsula in May exposed the region’s energy vulnerabilities. Now, Spain and Portugal are racing to boost grid interconnections with France and the wider EU – setting the stage for a surge in demand for specialized transport services.

From Issue 4, 2025 of Breakbulk Magazine

(5-minute read)

Just after midday on April 28, 2025, the lights went out across the Iberian peninsula. Within minutes, nearly 60 million people in Spain, Portugal and parts of southern France were plunged into darkness.

The blackout was initially linked to a sudden loss of power generation at a substation in Granada; however a subsequent Spanish government investigation, released in mid-June, concluded the wider outage was triggered by a mass solar shutdown across the network.

On an exceptionally sunny day, wholesale electricity prices turned negative, prompting solar farms to switch off en masse – a chain reaction that reportedly destabilized the grid and ultimately cascaded across the peninsula and beyond.

Compounding the misery of the blackout, a number of phone networks also failed, as did the water supply in many apartments, where power is often required to circulate water among the homes. The major recovery phase for the electrical grid on the Iberian Peninsula came around 21:35 Central European Summer Time, though complete grid stability wasn’t achieved until the following day.

“It was absolutely crazy,” said Beatriz Pedrosa of the sales and service department at Portugal-based Laso Transport, who was working in the company’s Lisbon office when the blackout struck. “We couldn’t talk to anybody because the phone signal also stopped,” she said. The company’s 900 trucks, active across Portugal, Spain and beyond, were suddenly isolated. “Some drivers said they had been calling us for hours, but couldn’t reach us. They didn’t know what to do.”

Although GPS still functioned, essential transport documents and permissions could not be accessed online. “If our drivers don’t have their routes because there is no signal or Wi-Fi, and he doesn’t know what bridges he can use, the cargo is at risk.”

Fuel shortages added to the chaos. “All the gas stations closed because you couldn’t pay with cards. They just shut everything down.” Pedrosa said some drivers were left without food and were stranded for hours without access to basic facilities.

Laso’s work includes high-frequency project cargo moves such as wind turbines and, while these loads weren’t impacted directly, the broader impact on the company’s operations was severe.

“We needed a week to recover from the disruption that the blackout gave us,” Pedrosa said. “Delayed deliveries created a backlog and clients, already facing system outages of their own, grew frustrated. People that have worked at Laso for twenty years said this never happened. I don’t think anybody had a plan.”

Unprecedented Disruption

For energy analysts, the scale of the outage was alarming. “This kind of blackout is highly unusual,” said Pratheeksha Ramdas, senior new energies analyst at Rystad Energy. “While minor oscillation events and regional separations have occurred before, the scale and speed of this event make it one of the rare and severe incidents in the region.”

Ramdas pointed to “low grid inertia due to the high penetration of renewables, inter-area oscillations with the wider European grid, and limited interconnection capacity.” She called the blackout “a wake-up call for the entire European Union regarding the vulnerabilities of aging infrastructure and the challenges posed by the energy transition if grid modernization doesn’t keep pace.”

Following the incident, both Spain and Portugal are now accelerating their interconnection plans with France and the wider EU. The Bay of Biscay HVDC cable, a €1.75 billion underwater line scheduled to come online by 2028, is expected to play a major role.

A key opportunity for the logistics community lies in the physical nature of the upgrades now required. For the project cargo sector, this means a likely increase in demand for specialized transport services, including high-voltage equipment, cooling systems and storage units. As more of these projects come online, shippers and their logistics providers will be expected to deliver heavier, more sensitive cargo under tighter timelines.

Spain’s national grid operator REE has already received approval for 25 infrastructure projects across Andalusia, totaling €103 million in investment. “These initiatives involve the installation of substantial components like transformers and STATCOM systems, which necessitate specialized logistics for transportation and installation,” said Ramdas.

Grid Investment

Other upcoming works include the reinforcement of 220 kV and 400 kV substations in locations such as Puebla de Guzmán and Algeciras, which will require oversize loads to be moved overland to often remote and mountainous locations.

While the exact timeline for procurement remains fluid, Ramdas said “broader trends suggest a significant ramp-up in capital spending,” with many projects already in advanced planning stages. These will span grid modernization, energy storage, hydrogen infrastructure, and capacity market implementation.

One of the key lessons, according to Ramdas, is that the energy transition cannot succeed solely on power generation investment. “The key takeaway is that renewable energy deployment must be matched by robust grid infrastructure investment.”

This is particularly urgent in southern Europe, where surging demand from data centers, electric vehicles and industry is placing new stress on an already-fragile grid. Ensuring stability for these assets will require new substations, automation, and more intelligent fault-tolerant design – all of which increase the demand for complex logistics services.

“Spain and Portugal are becoming attractive locations for data centers and the electrification of transport and industry to meet decarbonization goals will further increase electricity demand,” said Ramdas.

Supply Chain Vulnerability

From a project logistics perspective, the mass outage exposed just how reliant today’s supply chains are on stable power and connectivity, according to executives at Noatum Project Cargo.

“The Iberian blackout highlights not only the critical need for diversified and resilient energy generation but also exposes logistical vulnerabilities that must be addressed as Europe’s energy landscape evolves,” said Juan Agustín Perez Gil de Zúñiga, manager of global sales and business development.

“The sudden loss of connectivity and payment systems left drivers stranded, cargo movements delayed and essential transport documentation inaccessible. In an industry where oversized and sensitive components must reach remote sites safely and on schedule, such disruptions can cascade into substantial project delays and cost overruns,” he added.

“This blackout shows that while renewable energy sources like solar and wind are essential and increasingly cost-effective, relying solely on them – without adequate backup generation and robust grid infrastructure – introduces avoidable risk. Nuclear power, among other stable sources, should remain part of a balanced energy mix to cushion such unforeseen events.”

Noatum also emphasized the role of grid-scale storage, smart automation and physical reinforcement of infrastructure corridors in reducing future risk – all of which translate into growing demand for complex cargo solutions.

“For the logistics sector, this means specialized transport of high-voltage equipment, transformers, storage units and smart grid components,” added Pablo Conde, vice president at Noatum Project Cargo.

“Project cargo operators must be ready to support these infrastructure upgrades with proven expertise in route planning, heavy lift coordination, and contingency protocols for remote or sensitive sites.”

He said that developing robust continuity plans will be key: “Investing in driver training, redundant communication methods, and emergency fuel and supply strategies will be crucial to keep essential cargo moving even when digital systems fail.

“Securing Europe’s energy future demands both a resilient generation portfolio and a modernized grid — and project logistics will play a central role in delivering both.”

For Laso, the blackout delivered some hard lessons for the future. “We should prepare our drivers and our teams for a situation like this because it may happen again,” Pedrosa said, adding that she believes future readiness must include standardized guidance for logistics professionals – what food and water to carry, where to stop and how to proceed without digital instructions.

Pedrosa also emphasized the importance of involving staff in the process. “It’s important to listen to what our drivers have to say about this, to build a solution together. We need a plan.”

The question now is whether European governments and grid operators are listening, too.

Laso Transportes and Noatum Project Cargo are exhibitors at Breakbulk Europe.