Electrical blackout: the technological dependance

Yesterday was quite an experience that makes you reflect.

28th april 2025, 12.30pm. No more electricity at home. They were supposed to come and fix the lift this morning so they must have cut the electricity for a moment. 5G is not working either… weird. I have some calls soon so let’s go and use the wifi at the gym. 

It’s very sunny outside and the street is quite packed with people in front of their apartment, eating their lunch. Oh, but there is no electricity in the street either, it’s not just my building. No wifi at the gym.. There is a car with the radio on and people getting closer to listen to the news. Good idea! I went back home, looked for my radio, put new batteries in (luckily I had bought some recently) and searched for a news channel: It’s a massive blackout affecting the whole of Spain, Portugal and part of France. 

That’s how we started over 14h without electricity.

It’s 2025, we have made exponential advancements in terms of technologies those past years but all of a sudden comes this massive blackout and it makes you think:

• People working from a computer can’t do much. No internet, no work. Everything is on the cloud today, which means that many of the documents can’t be accessible offline. No chatGPT, no Google, no Teams to speak to your team. And your laptop battery only lasts what it can.

• No phone. 5G is picked from antennas powered by electricity. Landline phone? The base needs to be plugged in to the electricity to work and that's when you still have a landline phone at home. 

• Radio played a critical role as it was the only source of information available and the only connection to the outside world. It helped to understand the situation and get the necessary information from the government and local authorities. We knew that it would take between 6 and 12h to get the electricity back.

• If you don’t carry cash on you, days like these get complicated. We are so used to paying everything contactless or by card these days. 

  • Shops were still open, although all dark, but you could only pay by cash. 

  • It looks like some ATMs were working but many are also dependent on electricity.

  • Many people rely on supermarkets, restaurants or take-away to eat, so it got tricky. Some could only buy a chocolate bar or a fruit for lunch with the few coins they found in their pockets. 

• Traffic lights stopped functioning. Driving in the city became an adventure for which you needed lots of patience.

• All the metros stopped. For those in between stations, passengers had to get off and walk to the closest station. All the trains stopped in Spain wherever they were. It took over 12h for some trains to be rescued and passengers had to wait in the middle of nowhere in the heat. 

• Water supply could have quickly become an issue. Although water was not affected, pumping systems to bring water to elevated places or top floors rely on electricity.

• Healthcare was one of the top concerns: 

  • To make sure that hospital services wouldn’t stop working, especially ICUs and other emergency departments and that life saving machines were still powered to support patients. Luckily, hospitals have emergency power systems to take over when power cuts happen. 

  • Patients at home with respiratory support devices powered by electricity had to find a way to charge their devices or those with insulin a place to keep their medicine cold.

  • Non urgent surgeries were postponed. Outpatients were sent back home and will be called back another day or have a followup call with their physician.

Although the day was weird, it was a great opportunity to reflect on our lives today, appreciate what we have and realise how dependent we are on technology. 

I have to admit that it was very enjoyable to slow down, take the time and read a book in the sun. People were quite relaxed. Parks were packed. Families took their kids to play or do their homework on benches, others went there to read their books. Overall, it brought people closer, chatting about what was happening, helping each other, especially the older people who couldn’t leave their home or needed to go back. Some shops let people take stuff and pay for it the next day when the card machines would be working again. It’s nice to experience those comforting gestures and to see the human power when technology lets you down.

It was also a perfect opportunity to appreciate what we have and all those little things that make our everyday life easier.