Island-wide blackout leaves La Palma in Spain without electricity

La Palma was left without electricity across the entire island at 06:42 on Monday, a total power outage that led the Government of the Canary Islands to declare an alert and activate the PLATECA. The incident coincided with an episode of intense rainfall that had already put the island on maximum alert since 02:00.

The island of **La Palma** proge up on Monday with no power. The Directorate General for Emergencies of the Government of the Canary Islands declared an alert across the whole island after detecting a general failure of the electricity system that resulted in a total outage and the complete loss of supply at around **06:42**. It was not a partial cut affecting a single neighbourhood: the interruption hit the entire island.

## What activating the PLATECA means

The regional government applied the Canary Islands Civil Protection Territorial Emergency Plan, known as the **PLATECA**, approved by Decree **98/2015** of 22 May. The alert declaration is not a formality: it serves to monitor how the incident evolves, coordinate the administrations and bodies involved, and assess any possible impact on essential services.

Meanwhile, the restoration of supply is proceeding gradually, according to information provided by Emergencies. The Directorate General has activated the monitoring and coordination mechanisms provided for in the plan for incidents of this kind.

## Rain complicates the situation

The island is not only dealing with the blackout. Since **02:00** it had already been on maximum alert for rain. Convective activity is developing with remarkable intensity in the east of the island, with accumulations of up to **62 litres per square metre in one hour** and **138 litres in 12 hours**.

That volume of water, combined with the collapse of the electricity system, paints a delicate scenario for essential services. The coincidence of both events forces the response to be coordinated on two fronts at once.

## A precedent that weighs heavily

The memory of **2021** is still present in La Palma. Lava from the volcano devastated part of the island and created an underground world beneath the terrain. That episode showed how fragile the island's infrastructure is in the face of extreme events.

Now, the focus is on restoring electricity as soon as possible and checking how the rest of the services respond while the outage lasts.