Spanish ministers say energy companies 'still unable' to determine cause of blackout

The causes of Monday's blackout remain unknown, several Spanish government ministers insisted on Friday, calling for "caution" when assigning blame.

Following reports pointing to reasons such as firewalls failing or an excess of renewables, the science minister Diana Morant has said that electricity companies "are not yet able to identify the origin of the problem."

"We are being very prudent and rigorous," she said.

Presidency minister Fèlix Bolaños assured that the situation in the electrical system is "completely normal at all levels" and that now "the priority is to find out the causes of the blackout and prevent it from happening again."

Bolaños made these statements in a message on social media after chairing a new meeting of the Situation Committee, which is supporting Spain's National Security Council in analyzing the electricity crisis.

Óscar López, the minister for digital transformation, told public broadcaster La1 that the causes "are still unknown."

López insisted that the Spanish government is putting "all available resources" on the table to determine the reasons behind the blackout.

"The priority now is to investigate, clarify, learn, and improve," he said, emphasizing that they need to analyze millions of data points.

López criticized attempts to blame renewable energy for the blackout and claimed that "economic interests" are behind such reports.

"Blaming renewables seems deeply unfair to me," he stressed, accusing the opposition PP (People’s Party) of being the "nuclear lobby." According to him, abandoning renewables would be a "historic mistake."