What happened on Saturday morning?

The outage began at around 5:40 at the 66 kV Mácher substation in the municipality of Tías, where all 66 kV circuit breakers opened.

At 5:44, a frequency drop led to a further spread to the San Bartolomé and Punta Grande substations. There, the entire output of the power station was shut down.

According to Endesa, around 84,000 customers were affected. The island council gave a figure of around 73,600 customers. The conflicting figures are not conclusively explained in the available reports.

How quickly was power restored?

Endesa reported at 7:13 that practically the entire distribution network had been restored. The island council and other reports give around 7:15 as the time of reconnection.

Power was therefore available again after around an hour and a half. The 66 kV Mácher–Tías 1 transmission line initially remained out of service.

Clavijo highlighted the "rapid restoration" of "almost the entire supply" within a few hours. Recently installed backup systems fed energy into the grid and accelerated the recovery, he said, according to La Voz de Lanzarote.

What impact did the outage have on water and services?

The power cut halted the desalination plants on Lanzarote and La Graciosa, temporarily stopping drinking water production. The water authority Aguas de Lanzarote y La Graciosa worked on resuming production.

Lower pressures or interruptions in distribution were possible at times. The desalination plants and water-dependent services were particularly affected.

The island council set the PEIN island emergency plan to pre-alert to monitor possible consequences for essential services. The Canary Islands government's Directorate General for Emergencies activated the pre-alert phase of PLATECA, the Canary Islands civil protection plan, at 7:15.

The president of the Consorcio de Seguridad y Emergencias de Lanzarote, Francisco J. Aparicio, reported a single reported incident in a lift as a result of the power cut.

What does the Canary Islands government say?

Regional president Fernando Clavijo Batlle, president of the Government of the Canary Islands, said the incident once again demonstrated the "ageing of the electrical infrastructure". The Canary Islands government announced an investigation, or administrative proceedings, to clarify the causes.

Clavijo said, according to La Voz de Lanzarote: "This shows once again what we have been calling for: the ageing of the infrastructure, which could not be renewed because of a state regulation."

He announced that the proceedings would be made public as soon as they are available. He did not give a specific publication date.

What is known about the cause?

Endesa and Red Eléctrica de España (REE) are investigating the incident. A definitive technical cause was not yet available in the reports consulted.

Cited factors included the fault in Mácher, subsequent frequency problems and further effects on the high-voltage network. Sources at Red Eléctrica told the EFE news agency that the incident at 5:44 was caused by a fault at a bay of the Mácher 132/66 kV substation.

The Punta Grande power station was then shut down, causing the loss of supply in central and northern Lanzarote. According to REE, the Mácher substation is awaiting grid meshing works linked to the completion of the 132 kV double-circuit line between Mácher and Playa Blanca.

What is the state of the Canary Islands electricity system?

The BOC only confirms the need for additional capacity of 120 MW (Gran Canaria), 80 MW (Tenerife) and 50 MW (Fuerteventura). I have not found the year 2024 and the 250 MW renewal for Lanzarote/Fuerteventura before 2029. RTVC only mentions around 250 MW of firm capacity to be commissioned before 31 December 2028. That is a different context.

Electricity demand in the Canary Islands rose by 2.5 percent to 8,750 GWh in 2023. Lanzarote accounted for 8.8 percent of this, Tenerife 40.1 percent and Gran Canaria 38 percent.

In 2024, regional demand reached 8,896 GWh, an increase of 0.5 percent compared with 2023. Lanzarote held a share of around 8.8 percent.

The regional government has approved the modernisation of existing generation units. On Lanzarote, this concerns the Punta Grande gas turbine with 19.6 MW. The overall programme covers 374.52 MW across nine units, without increasing rated capacity.