As the Age of Electricity evolves, with steadily rising electrification rates and electricity demand, blackouts can impact a vast part of economies and social life. Outages induced by operational failures, technical error, or climate-driven events illustrate the importance of redundancy, resilience, and thorough oversight. The following list of outage incidents in 2025 underscores how ensuring the security, reliability and resilience of power systems is evolving from a technical challenge to a strategic necessity that requires unwavering attention from system operators, regulators, and policy leaders.

On 28 April 2025 at about 12:33 local time, the Iberian Peninsula suffered a widespread blackout, the largest European outage since the 2003 Italian Peninsula blackout. According to the initial report by ENTSO-E, and the analysis conducted by the Spanish system operator Red Eléctrica and the national authorities within the Committee established by the Spanish Government, the incident was of multifactorial origin, caused by a combination of high voltage volatility, limited reactive absorption at that moment, strong power oscillations, and rapid disconnections leading to a further surge in voltage. In the half hour prior to the incident, two distinct modes of oscillation occurred in the Continental Europe Synchronous Area (CESA). The respective system operators enacted a series of standard mitigating measures, including reduction in export flows from Spain to France and Portugal, and reconfiguration of internal power lines. While these measures had the desired effect of dampening oscillation, they also increased voltage in the Iberian power system and scaled down reactive absorption. Disconnection of generators prompted the voltage level in several nodes to further spike beyond the 435 kV operational limit.

The over-voltage set off a chain reaction of generation losses and a decline in the Spanish and Portuguese power system frequency. The Iberian Peninsula was completely desynchronised from the Continental European power system and cascading disconnections swept across the region, affecting Spain, Portugal, and a small border region of France. System collapse happened in a matter of seconds, bringing the Iberian Peninsula to a powerful voltage blackout. Leveraging cross-border interconnections with France and Morocco while domestic black-start units came online significantly accelerated the restoration process in Spain, demonstrating the benefits of regional interconnectivity. The rapid restoration – completed within 12-16 hours – reflects the effectiveness of established restoration procedures and cross-border co‑ordination, underscoring the importance of the EU’s electricity interconnection objectives.

Another significant power outage associated with voltage instability took place in North Macedonia. In the early morning of 18 May 2025, a grid failure led to a partial blackout. Several power transformers tripped due to overvoltage, which weakened the system and led to the eventual separation of the country’s transmission networks. Nearly 79% of the total system load was lost as a result of this disruption. Although the wider Continental European power system remained unaffected, the Bulgarian control area enacted an alert state for eight hours on account of high voltages on the same day. The country’s transmission system operator, MEPSO, identified low electricity consumption and cross-border transit as the probable cause of high voltage levels on the grid.

On 25 February 2025 at about 15:16 local time, Chile was hit by its worst blackout in 15 years. A failure in the protection system caused the main north-south transmission line to shut down unexpectedly. This sudden dual-circuit outage spread with subsequent disconnections, leading to a system separation between the northern and southern parts of Chile. The North Zone, which was exporting power before the incident and where 30% of the national demand is located, lost electricity supply due to voltage instability. South-Central Chile, which had been importing power from the north and serves the remaining 70% of demand, collapsed within seconds of the failure, losing 1 800 MW of supply as contingency defence schemes malfunctioned. This incident plunged 14 of Chile’s 16 regions, accounting for about 98% of the population, into darkness and incurred an estimated USD 450 million in economic losses. Around half of the country regained access to electricity later that night, and the system returned to normal around 9 AM the following day.

In the United States, major weather-related power outages started at the onset of the New Year. Seven states were hit by widespread power outages on 6 January 2025 as Winter Storm Blair left more than 300 000 people without heat or electricity. A state of emergency was declared and authorities warned citizens to steer clear of downed wires and damaged equipment. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, starting from 7 January, a powerful windstorm and massive fires left more than 200 000 households and businesses without electricity. Powerful windstorms, thunderstorms, blizzards and tornadoes swept the country again in March, causing outages in more than 20 states, affecting 500 000 homes and businesses. On 29 April, severe wind swept across Pennsylvania, toppling trees and crippling utility poles, resulting in power outages that impacted over 450 000 consumers. About a month later, on 26 May, a combination of heavy rain, hail, and strong winds caused extensive damage to electrical equipment and cut power to more than 130 000 customers in Texas.

Across the Atlantic, Ireland was also hit by record-breaking wind gusts of Storm Éowyn in January, which brought about unprecedented and immense damage to electricity infrastructure. Over 768 000 customers were affected and 39 000 people in remote and rural communities remained without power for a week after restoration efforts began. ESB Networks, Ireland’s distribution system operator, announced 3 000 electricity poles across the country needed replacement and approximately 900 km of new conductor cable was to be installed after the event.

In Australia, as Cyclone Alfred swept across South East Queensland and northern New South Wales in March 2025, more than 500 000 customers lost power. Fallen trees and tree branches had to be lifted off power lines, which led to protracted restoration efforts and left many without electricity for multiple days. South East Queensland and the Victoria region suffered from power outages again on the morning of 27 October, as high wind gusts and large hailstones swept through the area. Around 26 000 households in Queensland and 1 300 customers in Victoria woke up in the dark as the extreme weather caused significant damage to the power network.

On 22 September, Super Typhoon Ragasa made landfall in the Philippines with torrential downpours and raging winds. This coincided with the ongoing monsoon season in the region, exacerbating flooding and causing landslides. The tropical cyclone later made its way toward China. The typhoon significantly damaged key infrastructure, including transmission facilities and distribution utilities, triggering large scale outages. Hospitals, water facilities, and telecommunication stations had to resort to emergency generators to maintain essential services. Approximately 750 000 households in the Philippines and 56 000 in China were affected by the blackouts. The National Electrification Administration (NEA) of the Philippines later announced that electric co-operatives in the typhoon-hit region incurred substantial infrastructure damages.

On 28 October, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, causing widespread outages that left more than 530 000 people without electricity. Power restoration efforts were delayed by damaged infrastructure such as impassible roads, which is a common challenge in the aftermath of extreme weather events, further burdening these affected communities. Despite the government’s prioritisation and co-ordination of recovery efforts, some outages persisted for more than three weeks after the hurricane.

Meanwhile, unusually high temperatures of nearly 50 ºC in Iraq led to shutdown of two transmission lines, which resulted in a nationwide blackout on 11 August 2025. According to the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, the shutdown triggered “a sudden loss of more than 6 000 MW on the grid”, which forced power plants offline and the grid to eventually collapse under the pressure. This incident demonstrates the conundrum of maintaining stable system operations under the dual pressures of rising temperatures and surging consumer demand.