A different kind of war? Cyber attacks to decimate economies?

Possibly this is about the complex network switching and balancing - which is likely controlled by software that has been hit.

I have said before now (but the politicians took no notice) that it’s not nuclear warfare that we need to fear - the country can be brought to its knees much more easily by paralysing our computer systems. We have had several ‘trial runs” - air travel brought to a halt because the computer systems at Gatwick, Heathrow etc went down, logistics and road services- when all the motorway signs and the automatic payment at eg the Dartford crossing, have gone down, likewise the Severn bridge, M6 toll road past Birmingham, etc, paralyse our NHS by taking out (or hacking into) the computer systems at our big hospital, resulting in the cancellation of innumerable operations, blood transfusions or even donations. Paralyse our economy by hacking into the City computer systems and freezing banking (that has happened a few times in the last few months) and now- adding insult to injury, paralyse M&S online shopping, distribution systems and stock control.
Your question is a rhetorical one FGT and the more this country depends on computer systems and foreign energy suppliers the more vulnerable we become. 🤬🤬🤬

Neither of the above. It’s companies, governments etc taking their eye off the ball where cyber security is concerned.
And then there’s always a few who don’t want to pay to get problems fixed.

The M4 and M48 bridges crossing the Severn are free to cross.

I just hope my sister has her mobile phone charged up. She’s up in the hills with a poorly husband.

Sweden and Finland issued booklets to their citizens with info about possible emergencies - such as war- and suggest 72 hours at least of stocks of food, water, etc. ( and you may not have noticed that the NHS updated its info on iodine tablet distributions (re nuclear 'incident') in December last) ....

Are we next? Is this just a rehearsal?

Have we got candles at the ready?
A fully charged mobile today?
Fuel in the car?
A battery operated radio?

✔️

Explanation for the outage in Portugal and Spain.
news.sky.com/story/spain-portugal-power-outage-latest-large-parts-of-countries-affected-with-traffic-lights-not-working-and-phone-lines-down-13357538?postid=9504891#liveblog-body
It’s strange, and I don’t know if it’s connected in any way, but I said to my son this morning to look at the sky - the plane tracks were all over the place, they must have been there for many hours, because there were about 100 of them. I’ve never seen that before (Cardiff airport is not busy).

Beechnut

The M4 and M48 bridges crossing the Severn are free to cross.

OK sorry, I didn't know that, but the Dartford crossing certainly isn't and the bulk of our food and other freight comes across the channel (through the tunnel) and then round the M25 using the Dartford crossing.

I didn’t say anything about the Dartford crossing.

It’s a terrifying thought that we can be held hostage to cyber attacks of any kind and we so need to be ahead of the game.
As soon as I heard of the outages I feared it was terrorist cyber attacks. We are all vulnerable.

Portuguese grid operator REN reported that sudden and significant temperature variations in Spain's interior led to "anomalous oscillations" in high-voltage power lines—a phenomenon known as "induced atmospheric vibration." These oscillations disrupted the synchronisation of the electrical grid, resulting in cascading failures across the Iberian Peninsula.

No, me neither.

Basically, unreliable renewables do not work at scale. Relying on them for national power networks is reckless in the extreme. I do not expect any mainstream politician to tell the truth about this crisis as it bucks their green agenda.

If it was "sudden and significant temperature variations" causing ""induced atmospheric vibration." which affected "the synchronisation of the electrical grid", then it is not automatically the fault of "unreliable renewables".

Were these renewables explicitly blamed and if so, which? Solar power? How much does Spain rely on that?? If they were the culprit, was it solar power variation or was the sunshine variation on the actual power lines too much for them to cope with?

I don't think we can indict "unreliable renewables" without more evidence.

Beechnut

I didn’t say anything about the Dartford crossing.

No, I did if you read my post.

Sounds a bit strange to me.
The entire country? Where's the back-up system?
I would have thought they're used to dealing with fluctuating temperatures?

Of course not.

There are many kinds of induced vibration: mechanically-induced, flow-induced, wind-induced, human-induced etc.

Anything that vibrates i.e. shakes for long enough will cause a breakage: something mechanical rattling in your car, strong water pressure in loose pipes, someone upstairs jumping/thumping on your ceiling.

In laypersons's terms, that's what's happened here. Induced atmospheric vibration is caused by corona discharge near electrical conductors. People might be more familar with the term St Elmo's Fire or blue light. It happens in humid, stormy conditions.

Broadly, I suspect this event will be attributed to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain. more to do with global warming and nothing whatsoever to do with cyber attacks. I am sure we will learn how it could have had such wide-reaching affects on the entire power network over the course of the coming days.

Absolutely nothing to do with renewables, where did that from?

I am just outside Malaga, our power and water (electrically pumped) went off around 12. It has just come on.

We had just stepped out of the lift in the pueblo when it went off 😱

FGT2 we have been watching the cable cars, thinking of those who were in them when the power went!

Brahumbug

Absolutely nothing to do with renewables, where did that from?

Spain' electricity, very recently, is being supplied solely by renewables, the transmission of renewable electricity is different from more traditional electricity transmission, investigators are looking into this difference as a possible cause.

Not all of the Malaga area has power restored, we are looking out from the terrace, and there are multiple dark areas

Six days ago, the media celebrated a significant milestone: Spain’s national grid operated entirely on renewable energy for the first time during a weekday. Not celebrating now though.
😮

8.47pm

“Spain digs out radios and maps as blackout brings modern life to a halt
We are back to old school methods, says Barcelona resident, as power cut hits Europe”

This was caused by vibrations in the line which interrupted the signals. It had absolutely nothing to do with there not being enough power being sent due to renewable.

"Due to extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in very high volatge lines, something called 'induced atmospheric vibration'. These osculations cause synchronization failures between the electrical systems. It's a complex phenomenon and there is a need to rebalance electricity flows internationally, it could take a week to fix"

www.forexlive.com/news/induced-atmospheric-vibration-was-the-cause-of-the-spanish-power-outage-20250428/