La Palma was left without electricity at 06:42 on Monday, according to El País, in a total blackout that affected around 50,500 supplies. The outage occurred during an electrical storm, although its precise cause has not yet been confirmed. By shortly after 11:00, nearly 80% of affected supplies had recovered service.
The incident began at 04:10, when the Guinchos-Valle line, the island’s only transmission line, failed. About two and a half hours later, the Los Guinchos thermal power plant disconnected, causing the entire system to shut down.
Red Eléctrica and Endesa have offered different accounts of the sequence. Red Eléctrica pointed to the plant’s disconnection, which is operated by Endesa. Endesa, meanwhile, noted that Red Eléctrica’s line remained out of service, making restoration more difficult.
La Palma experienced another blackout in June 2025 that lasted almost three hours and also led to conflicting explanations. At that time, Endesa argued that the system should be able to withstand single or even double failures. It remains to be established whether the two failures in Monday’s incident were connected.
Restoring the island’s electricity requires technicians to start the Los Guinchos generators and connect them progressively. Unlike La Gomera, which began operating a 66-kilovolt submarine cable to Tenerife this summer, La Palma does not have a comparable alternative connection.
The investigation will have to determine why Los Guinchos disconnected and whether it should have remained operational after the transmission line failed. If it should have continued running, attention will focus on Endesa. If not, the incident raises questions about La Palma’s continued dependence on a single transmission line for an island with almost 90,000 inhabitants.
Sources: Xataka.