Gib hit by another blackout

Gibraltar was hit by another territory-wide power cut on Friday afternoon after there was a major earth fault in the Ocean Village area.

Power was lost just before 2pm, causing disruption to many businesses during the lunchtime period and power began to return at around 3.30pm.

The earth fault was reflected on Engine 4 and consequently impacted the operation of the Power Station.

The Gibraltar Electricity Authority apologised for the outage which took place when it was generating approximately 36.6 megawatts.

The BA service to Gibraltar was diverted to Malaga. While the air terminal had power, air traffic control did not.

“A territory-wide power outage in Gibraltar is currently affecting operations at RAF Gibraltar/Gibraltar International Airport,” the MoD posted on X, urging passengers to contact their airline for flight information.

“Flights will resume as soon as possible.”

A session of Parliament due to start at 2.30pm was adjourned to 3.30pm in the hope power would be restored by then.

Gemma Arias Vasquez, the minister for public utilities, delivered a statement in parliament in

“I am not here to give excuses,” she said.

“The Gibraltarian public has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in Gibraltar’s energy infrastructure, including the new Power Station, the LNG plant, the BESS system and upgrades to the grid.”

Mrs Arias Vasquez said she appreciates the disruption and frustration that an outage of this nature causes to families, to businesses, to essential services and to the wider community.

Since the recent power outages the Government has held a series of meetings, involving the Chief Minister and Mrs Arias Vasquez, with the relevant stakeholders at director level, in order to seek detailed explanations for what has occurred.

“This include meetings with the directors of the company that we engaged to provide us with the BESS, with the directors of Px and with the acting CEO of the GEA,” she said.

She called the incident unacceptable adding that even before the power cut all relevant stakeholders were making arrangements to meet on Tuesday at 11am.

“These meetings were arranged to one get to the bottom of what had caused the power outages, and two to ascertain how to make sure not to happen again,” she said.

The Government therefore considers it entirely unacceptable that power failures of this nature should continue to occur.

“As a result, the Government has already been in discussions with a third party with the relevant technical and managerial experience to support the GEA in the discharge of its functions and to assist in ensuring the resilience and reliability that the public rightly expects,” she said.

“The individual will be in situ by the end of the month.”

Mrs Arias Vasquez has asked the GEA to provide her, as the Minister with responsibility for Public Utilities, with a full and comprehensive report by Monday morning at 10.00am of this latest incident.

“The Cabinet will then meet to consider that report, its findings and the options available to the Government,” she said.

“In addition, the CEO of the GEA will be appearing on GBC News tonight, to give a further update of the situation and to apologise on behalf of the GEA.”

“Once the immediate restoration works are complete, which are currently ongoing, and once the Government has had the opportunity to consider the technical report, I will update the House further as appropriate.”