Fact Check: Minister rules out cyber-attack as cause of blackout.

Fact Check: Minister Rules Out Cyber-Attack as Cause of Blackout

What We Know

On April 28, 2025, a massive blackout affected both Spain and Portugal, disconnecting them from the European electricity grid for several hours. This incident caused significant disruptions, including power loss in businesses, schools, and public transport systems. Following the blackout, the Spanish government conducted an investigation into its causes. On June 17, 2025, the Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, presented a report stating that the blackout was due to a "multifactorial" system failure, specifically citing issues with voltage control and the miscalculation of power capacity needs by the national grid operator, Red Eléctrica. Notably, Aagesen explicitly ruled out the possibility of a cyber-attack being responsible for the blackout, stating, "there was no evidence that a cyber-attack had caused the blackout" (BBC, The Guardian).

Analysis

The claim that a cyber-attack was ruled out as a cause of the blackout is supported by multiple credible sources. The report presented by Aagesen highlighted that the failure was primarily due to the inability of the grid to manage voltage levels, exacerbated by insufficient thermal power stations being online at the time (Reuters, The Guardian).

The investigation revealed that the blackout was triggered by a sudden loss of 15GW of power, equivalent to 60% of the energy being used at that moment, which led to a chain reaction of disconnections (The Guardian). Aagesen's statements were consistent across various media outlets, reinforcing the reliability of her claims. The sources used in this analysis, including major news organizations such as the BBC and Reuters, are generally regarded as credible and provide well-sourced information.

Furthermore, the context of the blackout has been scrutinized politically, with opposition parties attempting to link it to the government's energy policies, particularly the shift towards renewable energy sources. However, Aagesen and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have firmly rejected these claims, emphasizing that the renewable energy output was not the cause of the outage (BBC, The Guardian).

Overall, the evidence presented in the investigation and the consistent messaging from government officials lend strong support to the conclusion that a cyber-attack was not involved in the blackout.

Conclusion

Verdict: True
The claim that the minister ruled out a cyber-attack as the cause of the blackout is accurate. The investigation conducted by the Spanish government concluded that the blackout was due to technical failures related to voltage control and miscalculations by the national grid operator, with no evidence found to suggest that a cyber-attack played any role in the incident.

Sources

1. Miscalculation by Spanish power grid operator REE contributed to massive blackout, report finds
2. Spain's government blames huge blackout on grid regulator and private firms
3. Spanish minister rules out cyber-attack as cause of April blackout, after expert report
4. Spain and Portugal blackout reason revealed with cyber attack ruled out
5. Spanish Minister rules out cyberattack as reason for April's blackout
6. Spain says April's blackout was caused by multiple technical failures and rules out cyberattack
7. Spain says blackout caused by grid failures and poor management
8. Spain's April blackout was not due to cyberattack, new report confirms