LISBON (Reuters) -Portuguese grid operator REN said on Monday it had “no information” that the mass power outages that hit the Iberian Peninsula were caused by a cyberattack.
REN board member Joao Conceicao told reporters the operator did not rule out that the blackout was due to a “very large oscillation in the electrical voltages, first in the Spanish system, which then spread to the Portuguese system”.
“There could be a thousand and one causes, it’s premature to assess the cause,” he said, adding that REN was in permanent contact with Spain.
Conceicao said REN hoped to reestablish the power supply in the country’s second-largest city, Porto, within the next two hours and within five or six hours in the capital, Lisbon.
“If it were up to REN, the country would wake up tomorrow with electricity, but unfortunately it’s not just REN that counts,” he said.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Catarina Demony; Writing by David Latona; Editing by Inti Landauro and Sandra Maler)
