UK looking at ‘different challenges’, minister says after Spanish power cut

The UK has been looking at how to deal with “different kinds of challenges and threats”, the Home Secretary said after a major power outage across Spain and Portugal.

Much of the two countries was brought to a standstill on Monday after a power cut switched off traffic lights and left people unable to access cash machines.

Asked whether the power cut there had triggered a fear that British infrastructure could be affected in the same way, Yvette Cooper told Sky News that the UK has a “continued approach” to “resilience” and “security issues”.

She added: “We’ve been looking, as part of wider security reviews across the country, how we deal with both resilience and also different kinds of challenges and threats.

“Some of which can be the traditional security challenges, some of which can be the kinds of resilience – things that we’re talking about in Spain and Portugal – and we obviously support them and the governments there in the work that they’re doing.”

Spanish power distributors said on Tuesday morning that more than 99% of power has been recovered.

The blackout saw train passengers stranded and millions of people left without phone and internet access after the outage on Monday.

The Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre said in a statement there was no indication that it was caused by a cyber attack.

It comes just weeks after Heathrow Airport was forced to halt operations for most of a day after a power outage caused by a substation fire.

The airport was closed to all flights until around 6pm on March 21, which disrupted more than 270,000 air passenger journeys.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said at the time that the Government will “have to look hard” at the “resilience” for major institutions such as Heathrow.