On April 28, 2025, Western Europe experienced its largest blackout in years – a massive power outage affected the entire territory of Portugal, a large part of Spain, as well as southern France and Andorra. Within minutes, airports, subways, hospitals, telecommunications networks, and public transportation were paralyzed. Authorities in Madrid and Lisbon declared a state of emergency, and power grid operators began gradually restoring electricity – a process estimated to take up to a week in some regions.

The cause of the outage has not yet been officially determined, but experts point to serious disturbances in the European power grid system, leading to so-called “strong oscillations” and the disconnection of the Spanish grid from the rest of Europe, triggering a domino effect across the Iberian Peninsula. The incident highlighted how complex and vulnerable modern energy networks are, and how challenging it is to protect critical infrastructure in the face of growing threats – both technical and hybrid in nature.

Maciej Kluczyński, President of the Polish Association for National Security and NATO country Project Director of the R-GRID Project
“Yesterday’s blackout in Western Europe shows just how fragile even the most advanced energy systems can be, and how urgent it is to implement modern tools for protecting critical infrastructure. Although Poland was not directly affected by the failure, we should treat it as a warning – technical, cyber, and hybrid threats know no borders,” says Maciej Kluczyński, President of the Polish Association for National Security and NATO country Poroject Director of the R-GRID project.

“In the R-GRID project, we are developing a simulator that uses artificial intelligence to analyze complex failure and attack scenarios, identify the most vulnerable points in the grid, and model potential improvements. In the future, solutions developed under R-GRID may be crucial to increasing the resilience of the Polish power system – both against technical failures and deliberate hostile actions.”

“The implementation of the CER directive and the practical use of tools like R-GRID offer a real opportunity to enhance energy security in Poland and across Europe,” Kluczyński adds.

R-GRID: Artificial Intelligence in the Service of Grid Security

In response to growing threats to energy infrastructure, the international R-GRID project was launched in May 2024, funded by NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. The goal of the project is to develop a simulator that leverages artificial intelligence to protect power systems – both from blackouts and from hybrid attacks or other emerging threats.

R-GRID is a sophisticated simulator that analyzes grid vulnerabilities, identifies its most critical points, and helps optimize protective measures – for both traditional and renewable energy sources. Thanks to AI and optimization algorithms, the system can predict the effects of complex failure scenarios, including hybrid attacks that combine cyber intrusions and physical damage to infrastructure.

The project is being implemented by a consortium of partners from Poland, Ukraine, and Finland, led by Maciej Kluczyński (Polish Association for National Security).

Dr. Eng. Krzysztof Łowczowski from the Institute of Power Engineering, Poznań University of Technology, Member of the Polish Association for National Security

“Over the years, access to electricity has become as natural as access to drinking water and air. The incident in Spain and Portugal demonstrates that even an extensive European power system can be vulnerable to local failures. The exact causes of the Western European outage will be analyzed to prevent similar situations in the future. Experience from previous blackouts shows that one of the biggest challenges is predicting and preventing cascading events, which may be triggered by a single disturbance – for example, a tree growing under a high-voltage line could cause a short circuit that sets off a chain of events leading to severe disruptions or a blackout (e.g., the 2003 outage in Italy).”

“At the same time, it should be emphasized that power grid disturbances occur regularly, and the risk of negative cascading effects is very low thanks to multilayered protections and response plans.”

“The Western European incident revealed that the European grid – as a functional whole – has a high tolerance to frequency disturbances. The loss of a significant portion of the system led to only a slight frequency drop to around 49.84 Hz (with a nominal value of 50 Hz), leaving a relatively large safety margin for underfrequency protection systems. Despite the absence of a direct threat to Poland, continuous analysis and proactive measures are essential to enhance energy security, including:

• planning the development and operation of the grid, including power plant construction and upgrades;
• short-term scheduling of generation units;
• maintaining the technical condition of lines and equipment, and operating them within technical limits and safety margins;
• adapting system protection strategies to changing network conditions (e.g., fluctuating demand and generation, voltage levels);
• developing contingency plans and applying automated safety and preventive systems such as load shedding, voltage load shedding (SNO), or power system stabilizers (PSS);
• verifying control settings, testing automation systems, and implementing emergency response procedures.”

“Poland has long taken energy security seriously, as evidenced by numerous conferences, innovative solutions (e.g., the Energy Compass), failure mitigation strategies, system-wide drills, and exercises carried out by network operators and key stakeholders. New solutions aimed at ensuring the safe operation of the grid are regularly implemented in Poland and across Europe – such as the NCRFG and NC ER codes. Poland’s grid has been successfully tested during a few serious domestic incidents and numerous high-risk situations in neighboring countries – for example, attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Although Poland has not experienced large-scale blackouts, it remains necessary to continue analyzing and monitoring the situation, accounting for various scenarios including extreme weather, terrorist threats, and military conflicts.”

“Despite technological advancements, power infrastructure has many limitations, and some failures cannot be avoided. Sometimes the only possible response is to limit the scale of an outage or quickly restore system operations – as provided for in the PSE’s Power System Restoration Plan.”

“In the coming years, it will be crucial for Poland to adapt system protection algorithms to evolving operating conditions and to incorporate hybrid threats. Equally important will be improving security through the effective use of distributed energy sources and storage systems – for example, to restart the system after a blackout.”

Summary

Yesterday’s blackout in Western Europe is not only a technical issue but also a strategic warning for the entire European Union. The implementation of the CER directive and initiatives such as the R-GRID project are responses to new challenges in protecting critical infrastructure. The coming years will determine whether Europe will be able to effectively safeguard its energy systems against future crises.