La Palma blackout: total power failure leaves the whole Canary island without electricity
The Spanish island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, suffered a complete blackout early on Monday, 2 November, after a general failure of its electrical system during heavy rain and thunderstorms. Endesa said 50,508 customers lost power from 06:38 local time (08:38 in Romania), and the Canary Islands government declared an alert under its PLATECA emergency plan. The cause has not been confirmed. By late morning about 40% of customers had their electricity back, while 32,781 were still waiting.
La Palma went dark on Monday morning. A general failure of the island's power system, known in Spain as a "cero energético", cut electricity to the entire island of about 85,000 people. Endesa, which runs the island's generation and distribution, put the start of the outage at 06:38 local time (08:38 in Romania) and said 50,508 customers were left without supply. The Canary Islands government's emergency services recorded the general failure at 06:42.
The Directorate General of Emergencies of the Canary Islands government declared an alert situation under the regional civil protection plan, PLATECA, from 07:30. According to the official declaration, the aim is to follow how the incident develops, support coordination between the authorities and agencies involved, and assess possible effects on essential services.
The cause has not been confirmed. Endesa said the origin was still unknown, but pointed to a strong electrical storm over the island. La Palma has been on maximum alert for rain since 02:00, with up to 62 litres per square metre falling in one hour and 138 litres in 12 hours on the island's eastern side. The AEMET weather station at La Palma airport recorded 77.5 litres per square metre by 05:30.
The island's power system is isolated, which makes restarting it complex. The 66 kV Guinchos-Valle line, the only transmission line on La Palma and operated by Red Eléctrica (REE), had already been out of service since about 04:10, after an incident earlier in the night. Endesa said that even once its generating units were running again, the line still had to be repaired. Telephone lines also went down, though the president of the island council (Cabildo), Sergio Rodríguez, said coverage was starting to return. He estimated it would take between two and five hours to restore supply.
Restoration went in stages. After work began at the Los Guinchos power station, REE said 20% of supply had been recovered. Shortly before 09:30 local time, Endesa reported 8,117 customers reconnected and 42,391 still without power. In a later update to EFE, the company said about 40% of affected customers had electricity again and 32,781 were still waiting, after several units at Los Guinchos were synchronised and REE repaired and returned the high-voltage line to service.
Spain's Minister for Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, said on X that the central government was in contact with the Canary Islands authorities and following both the blackout and the storms. El Hierro and La Gomera remain on alert for rain, while Tenerife and Gran Canaria are on pre-alert. La Palma has had repeated outages: the Cabildo said in June 2025 that the island had suffered at least seven general blackouts in 20 years and warned that the Los Guinchos plant uses equipment more than 50 years old.