Fecsa attributed the outage to a failure of part of the high-tension network of Catalonia.

A power failure that affects since this morning a large part of Barcelona and the región of Baix Llobregat is causing large problems in the Barcelona area leaving without light numerous homes, businesses, hospitals, traffic lights and public transportation systems such as the Metro and the Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat.

According to information provided to Efe by Barcelona Town Hall, the outage coincided with fires at two electrical transformers in the city, situated on Paseo Maragall and Avenida Josep Tarradellas, where various fire departments responded.

For its part, a spokesman for the company Fecsa-Endesa confirmed that the outage affected various points of the city and the metropolitana area, although he affirmed that it still remains unknown the causes and the number affected.

The outage left without electricity a good part of the districts of Sants, Eixample, Gracia, Sant Andreu, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi and Ciutat Vella, as well as some neighborhoods of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and de Esplugues, has provoked considerable road and train chaos, and has left without light a large number of businesses, stores and homes.

In short, the lack of electrical supply affected since approximately 11:15am two lines of the Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat, one that connects Barcelona with el Vallès and the line of Llobregat-Anoia, between Plaza España and the station of ldefons Sardà, as well as 3 Metro lines in the Catalan capital, the 1, 3 and 5, with different severities.

In some cases, the trains with passengers were left stopped inside tunnels or at the platforms, in some cases for up to a half hour, although these stoppages didn’t produce any severe incidents since the service was able to be reestablished in part thanks to the use of electrical generators.

The chaos also hit traffic, since most traffic lights were knocked out in the principal arteries of the Catalan capital, such as Diagonal, Meridiana, Passeig de Gracia and Passeig de Sant Joan as well as a critical point of plaza Lesseps.

The power failure also affected the Hospital Clínico, which had to suspend all scheduled surgical operations, while the procedures already underway were able to continue thanks to the use of their own generators.

Likewise, the lack of electricity affected the Hospital de Sant Pau, the Hospital del Mar and the children’s unit of Hospital de Sant Joan de Déu.


Barcelona’s firemen had to rescure this morning numerous people trapped in elevators. The firemen received a “large quantity” of calls from people that were trapped. A fire department spokesman explained that they were “pushed beyond their limits” owing to the avalanche of calls that they were receiving since a little after 11am.

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