Overview

• Investigators describe a rapid chain starting in southern Spain around 12:32, with voltages rising extremely fast past 440 kV and triggering protective trips across generators.
• Successive losses included 355 MW, then 725 MW near Adra, and about 1 GW across central and southwestern areas within seconds, followed by further multi‑gigawatt disconnections.
• Spain and Portugal lost synchronism with the European grid at 12:33:21, isolating Iberia after a morning of rising tensions that operators initially contained.
• ENTSO-E calls it Europe’s most severe power failure in 20 years and the first overvoltage‑driven cascade of its kind, noting Spain’s high‑voltage network was fully restored by 16:00 with cross‑border support.
• The expert panel reports limited access to some generator data slowed the inquiry and says a final set of recommendations is due in the first quarter of 2026.