A full power outage left the entire island of La Palma without electricity on Tuesday, June 10, following a fault at the Los Guinchos power station in Breña Alta. The blackout, described as a ‘zero energy’ incident, began at 5:32 pm local time and affected 50,289 connections, according to Endesa and local authorities.

Firefighters were called to help people stuck in elevators, and emergency teams were deployed across the island. Many areas also lost mobile phone coverage, making communication difficult.

Cause of the blackout still under investigation

The problem started when a turbine at the Los Guinchos plant suddenly shut down, triggering a chain reaction that cut power to the whole island. Endesa and the La Palma Island Council are still investigating the exact cause. Red Eléctrica has confirmed that the issue was not caused by their equipment.

Power was gradually restored. By 8:02 pm, over 90% of the electricity supply had been recovered, and full restoration followed shortly after. However, no exact timeline was given during the outage.

Emergency plan activated to protect residents

Given the size of the blackout, the Canary Islands government activated its emergency response plan (PLATECA), placing the island in a state of alert. The Los Llanos health centre and other essential services were affected, but backup systems helped reduce the impact.

Fourth blackout in just over a month

This was the fourth major outage in La Palma in just over a month, raising serious concerns about the island’s electrical infrastructure. Previous blackouts in May affected thousands of users in Santa Cruz de La Palma, Los Llanos de Aridane, and El Paso. However, none had impacted the entire island until now.

La Palma’s power system is more fragile than mainland networks because it operates independently. When a fault occurs at a major facility like Los Guinchos, the whole system can shut down quickly.

Calls for answers and long-term solutions

Canary Islands officials have stated they will not hesitate to take action against those responsible if necessary. The Ministry for Ecological Transition confirmed there is no power generation shortage on the island, but problems have been found in Endesa’s distribution network, especially in medium-voltage lines and the Los Guinchos facility.

After this latest incident, pressure is growing to improve the island’s energy infrastructure and avoid more blackouts in the future.