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last mo.

Near-Simultaneous Substation Failures Cut Power to 87,000 in Barcelona Area

Rapid fault detection and isolation let most customers regain power quickly; investigators are examining a transformer fire near Hospital de Bellvitge.

Una subestación eléctrica en L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, en una imagen de archivo
Image
La Avenida do Fragoso sin la red semafórica operativa debido a una incidencia en la estación de Balaídos, esta mañana.
La Plaza Mayor de Ourense, a oscuras este lunes.

Overview

  • Two separate faults in Barcelona-area substations late Monday night left about 87,000 customers without power before service was restored by utilities.
  • A transformer fire near Hospital de Bellvitge at 00:22 affected roughly 68,000 customers and was resolved in about 40 minutes according to Endesa.
  • About ten minutes later a fault at the Collblanc substation disconnected a transformer and cut power to roughly 19,000 customers, with restoration in about 20 minutes.
  • Earlier the same evening Galicia saw short outages after a Balaídos substation fault and a Barbaña substation 'disparo' in Ourense that utilities say was fixed within three to 17 minutes and did not disrupt local rail traffic.
  • Substations and transformers are key nodes that can produce concentrated outages when they fail, utilities credit fast detection and isolation for limiting impact, and the Bellvitge blaze is under investigation as officials review possible causes and next steps.