The senior security and defense officials of Spain on Wednesday to discuss the blackout in the Iberian Peninsula this week, which stopped the critical infrastructure for up to 18 hours in some areas.
The authorities in Spain and Portugal are fighting to determine what the electricity grid closed.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez or Spain with officials of the National Security Council in Madrid, and the Council of Ministers of Spain held a separate meeting focused on the interruption. The Spanish government has asked European regulators, as well as the Ecological Transition Ministry of Spain, Spanish Security officials and the operator of the National Network of Spain, to investigate the incident.
The blackout, which was Monday afternoon, interrupted everyday life in Spain and Portugal until electricity was restored on Tuesday morning. Parts of France were also briefly affected.
The incident has raised doubts about whether the rapid change of renewable energy left it more vulnerable to interruptions, difficult Spanish officials have so far denied any connection. Beatriz Corredor, president of Red Eléctrica, the Electric Company of Spain, on Wednesday told the Spanish Radio Network Cadena Ser that “it was not correct to link the incident with renewable energy.”
Red Electrica said there was no evidence of a cyber attack on the transmission network, but Spanish officials were still investigating whether it was a possibility.
A judge ordered Red Eléctrica on Tuesday, the intelligence and police service that produced reports within 10 days about whether a cyber attack was behind the blackout, according to a judicial document. The Cryptological National Center, which supervises the cybercrientes, was also reviewing the online electricity systems to “ensure that the hypothesis is not ruled out,” said Sánchez.
After the energy was restored, the Ministry of Interior of Spain reduced many regions of the highest three levels of alert to a medium.
Madrid and the western region of Extremadura remained at the highest level on Wednesday, the ministry said.
In Portugal, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said after an emergency government meeting on Tuesday that the interruption was related to an abrupt increase in the Spanish electricity grid, which activated the security mechanisms that led to the blackout.
“We will be calmly evaluation with the Spanish authorities what happened and try to design better response instruments in the future to avoid a repetition of this fact,” he said.
The interruption is expected to be a duration of the key topic a debate on Wednesday between Mr. Montenegro and the opposition leader, Pedro Nuno Santos, before a parliamentary election on May 18. The two had originally scheduled a debate on Monday.
Tiago Carrasco Lisbon contributed reports.
