The traffic lights were turning again from red to green. The trains in the Madrid subway system were rolling on all lines except one. And the waiters were serving food and generous slopes of beer and wine to customers in the terraces of a long -haired road restaurant than normal.
A day after Spain and Portugal were affected by large blackouts, electricity had returned to most areas of both countries on Tuesday, leaving many raised but also clearly critical on what had caused exactly the widespread energy insufficiency.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain said that his country recovered over 95 percent of the total offer by 6.30 on Tuesday. In the nearby Portugal, a spokesman for the electricity and gas supplier Ren said that the energy had been restored to all subsits of the country's network and that everything was “100 %operational”.
The cause of the blackout, which blocked tens of millions of people in the Iberian peninsula, remained unknown on Tuesday.
Eduardo Prieto, director of services for the National Power Company of Spain, Red Eléctric, said that there have been no “definitive conclusions” as regards the reasons for the interruption.
He joined a choir of officials who declared that there was no computer security attack. But he also excluded human error and meteorological causes.
He said that the Spanish electric system had closed after being hit by two separate current interruptions, just one and a half and a half away.
“This may seem like a small amount,” he said, “but in the electric world, it's a significant amount.” He said the arrests had occurred in the south -ovest of Spain.
Sánchez said that the second priority of his government, after ensuring that the country's electricity system had been completely restored, was to analyze what had caused the arrest, both through a national analysis committee at national level and through the European Commission.
“Citizens must be clear that the Spanish government will arrive at the bottom of this issue and will implement the necessary measures to ensure that this never happens again and we will consider the responsible private operators,” said Sánchez in a press conference.
Although Sanchez said that he was expecting answers within the next “hours or days”, Kristian Ruby, general secretary of Eurolectric, a commercial body that represents the European electricity industry, said that weeks or even months to complete the technical analysis requested.
But some initial information has already emerged, he said. A high voltage connection between France and Spain was interrupted around Mezzogiorno on Monday. The current interruption took place just over 30 minutes later, at 12:33.
While that interruption would have been disruptive, it would normally not lead to a “collapse of the system” like the one seen on Monday, Ruby said. Something more should happen in general, “as a sudden interruption in an electric power plant, a sudden development on the side of the demand,” he said. “Then you can have an accident like this.”
Ruby said that the interruptions are “somewhere on the scale between an event from 50 to 100 years”.
Both Spain and Portugal closed on Monday afternoon. The traffic lights darken, the trains and the subway stopped, the elevators stopped, often with the people stuck inside.
Companies, factories and schools closed and the airports delayed and canceled flights.
There have also been problems with internet connection and telephone networks, leaving many unscrewed and unable to access information.
When the power returned on Monday evening and the lights suddenly turned on, the greetings broke out through Madrid.
In the cities of all the two countries, life was returning to shots on Tuesday. While the subway had returned to Madrid and Lisbon, the Spain's National Railway System reported that many of its commute trains had reduced the service or had been deleted.
The Spanish Ministry of Transport reported that all airports were operating. In Portugal, the Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, announced that “two or three days” would have wanted to return to the flight to normal at Lisbon International Airport.
“Yesterday, there were practically no flights and they were supported with today's flights,” said Pinto Luz to The News Channel Now.
The cell service and the fiber optic service worked again in most of Spain.
Madrid Open, an international tennis tournament, returned to operation on Tuesday afternoon after the interruption forced the cancellation of 22 games on Monday.
“It seems that everything goes better today, but I don't understand how something like this is possible with all the technology we have today,” said Doroteo García, an 87 -year -old pensioner, walking with difficulty near a railway station in Madrid. He had spent the day before trapped in his apartment, he added, because the elevator did not work.
“I lived in a canned sardines all day because I couldn't cook,” he said.
Although power had returned, the Spanish capital had not completely returned to her lively self. Many people stayed at home. The schools were open, but few with regular lessons.
In Lisbon, schools and playing fields full of laughter on Tuesday afternoon, the parks were populated with enthusiasts of exercises that ran or practiced yoga, and the streets were engaged with workers who headed towards works in the city. The grocery stores, which they had closed during the short crisis, had returned to work. The restaurants and shops opened and, for the most part, seemed mostly unchanged by the interruptions.
Azam Ahmed Relationships contributed by Lisbon; And Jonathan Wolfe of Murcia, Spain.