Grid failure at Mácher
At 05:40 on Saturday, a technical fault at the 66-kilovolt Mácher substation in the municipality of Tías triggered the opening of all 66 kV circuit breakers. The initial outage disconnected 15,595 customers and prompted grid operator Red Eléctrica de España and utility Endesa to attempt medium-voltage line transfers from adjacent facilities. Four minutes later, at 05:44, an underfrequency load shedding event disconnected the entire generation capacity at the Punta Grande power station and tripped the Bartolomé substation. The cascading disruption left between 73,600 and 84,000 customers without electricity across almost the entire island of Lanzarote and the neighbouring island of La Graciosa. The southern resort area of Playa Blanca maintained power throughout the incident because of its direct interconnector link with Fuerteventura.
Restoration and emergency response
Technicians restored the high-voltage network and distribution grid in stages under operational guidance from Red Eléctrica de España. Electricity supply returned to almost all affected users by 07:13, though the 66-kilovolt Mácher to Tías 1 transmission line remained out of service. During the recovery, operators also isolated a secondary failure involving an underground cable on a 20-kilovolt line at Punta Grande. At 07:15, the Directorate General of Emergencies of the Canary Islands activated a pre-alert status under the PLATECA emergency plan, while the local island council activated the PEIN emergency framework to monitor basic infrastructure. Local emergency services in Lanzarote reported only one elevator rescue during the blackout.
Although the electricity supply has been recovered, we maintain our services active and the PEIN on pre-alert to attend to any incident that may occur.
- Circuit breakers open at the Mácher substation, cutting power to 15,595 customers.
- Underfrequency shedding trips Punta Grande generation, cutting power to another 68,478 customers.
- Electricity supply is largely restored across distribution networks in both islands.
- Canary Islands emergency authorities declare a pre-alert status to monitor essential services.
Disruption to desalination plants
The loss of electrical power forced an immediate shutdown of seawater desalination plants operated by the public utility Aguas de Lanzarote y La Graciosa. Because desalination facilities require progressive startup and stabilization protocols, drinking water production did not resume immediately when electricity returned. Utility teams performed network distribution maneuvers to conserve existing water reserves and manage storage tanks across both islands. The water authority warned residents that temporary supply cuts and water pressure drops could occur in various towns throughout Saturday while systems stabilized. Authorities requested that households limit their water consumption to essential needs during the recovery process.
Calls for grid modernization
The regional government launched an inquiry into the failure, with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Energy requesting formal technical reports from the involved utility operators. Regional President Fernando Clavijo stated that the incident pointed to aging infrastructure across non-peninsular electrical networks. Clavijo noted that the Spanish central government had initiated tender competitions to renew generation equipment across the Canary Islands, alongside regional investments in battery storage and grid reinforcement. Red Eléctrica de España confirmed work is proceeding on a new 132-kilovolt double-circuit transmission axis between Mácher and Playa Blanca to complete the power link between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
Evidently, the economic and social consequences of this type of blackout are felt by the population.