Lanzarote and La Graciosa restore grid power after blackout hits up to 84,000 customers

Substation fault triggers total island outage

A total electrical blackout struck the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa during the early morning hours of Saturday, cutting power to between 73,600 and 84,000 customers. The incident began at 05:40 local time at the 66-kilovolt Mácher substation, operated by Red Eléctrica de España in the municipality of Tías, where all 66-kilovolt switches tripped. Technical reports submitted to island authorities indicated the disruption originated in a grid mesh issue starting from a 132-kilovolt transmission line. The southern resort area of Playa Blanca avoided the outage because it maintained electricity through a subsea cable connection to neighbouring Fuerteventura.

Four minutes after the initial failure, an underfrequency load-shedding event occurred at 05:44, affecting the San Bartolomé and Punta Grande substations. This cascade disconnected generation at the central power plant, expanding the blackout across the distribution network. Endesa responded by re-routing power through medium-voltage loops from adjacent substations in coordination with the transmission system operator. A secondary cable breakdown on a 20-kilovolt line at Punta Grande was isolated during the recovery maneuvers.

Progressive restoration and emergency pre-alerts

Utility technicians restored electricity in stages throughout the morning under instructions from Red Eléctrica de España. By 06:47, the number of disconnected customers dropped to roughly 39,000, and by 08:00, unserved accounts fell to 8,463. Endesa reported the distribution network was functionally re-energised by 07:13, while the island council confirmed complete restoration across both islands shortly after 09:00. The 66-kilovolt Mácher-Tías 1 transmission circuit remained offline for ongoing repairs.

The Directorate General of Emergencies of the Canary Islands government declared a pre-alert status at 07:15 under the territorial emergency plan PLATECA. Island authorities in Lanzarote also activated the insular emergency plan PEIN to monitor essential infrastructure. Emergency crews recorded limited disruption during the blackout period.

Hasta el momento, únicamente solo se ha detectado una incidencia en un ascensor a causa del corte de suministro. No obstante, seguimos en alerta ante cualquier consecuencia producida por este tiempo sin energía.

Desalination shutdown and water supply impact

Although electrical service was re-established, the outage forced the immediate shutdown of seawater desalination facilities on both islands. The public utility Aguas de Lanzarote y La Graciosa halted potable water production while technicians reconfigured the distribution network to preserve stored reserves. The utility warned that water operations cannot restart instantaneously, as desalination lines require staged start-up sequences and pressure stabilization before reaching normal capacity.

Residents across multiple municipalities face potential pressure drops and intermittent water suspensions throughout Saturday while production ramps back up. Island officials asked consumers to limit consumption to essential needs during the stabilization window.

Aunque el suministro eléctrico se ha recuperado, mantenemos nuestros servicios activos y el PEIN en prealerta para atender cualquier incidencia que pueda producirse.

Grid operators and utility inspectors have opened technical investigations into the exact sequence of breaker trips at the Mácher substation.