Blackout in Spain and Portugal 'first of its kind', report finds

The massive blackout that hit the Iberian peninsula is the first known blackout caused by overvoltage.

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Damian Cortinas, president of the association of electricity grid operators Entso-e, said the incident was the first known blackout to be caused by overvoltage, which occurs when there is too much electrical voltage in a network.

"This is new territory," Cortinas said, adding the role of Entso-e was "not to apportion blame to any party" over the cause.

April's outage caused significant disruption for nearly a day when it plunged areas into darkness, cutting internet and telephone connections and halting transport links.

The blackout affected large parts of Spain and Portugal, and briefly affected southwestern France.