How Sentinel Spaces Supports Organisations During Major Power Outages - following the Spain & Portugal Blackout
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On April 28, 2025, Spain and Portugal experienced one of the most extensive power outages in European history, affecting over 50 million people and disrupting essential services such as transportation, telecommunications, and financial systems.
The blackout lasted up to 12 hours in some areas, with full grid stabilisation taking several days.
Key Takeaways from the Iberian Blackout
Sudden and Catastrophic Power Loss: Spain's grid operator, Red Eléctrica de España (REE), reported a rapid loss of 15 gigawatts—about 60% of national demand—within five seconds.
Renewable Energy Factors: At the time, renewables supplied over 70% of Spain’s electricity. While some speculated that the variability of solar and wind power contributed to the outage, experts emphasised that the lack of grid inertia and insufficient infrastructure upgrades were more significant factors.
Potential Causes: Initial theories included a rare atmospheric phenomenon causing oscillations in high-voltage lines, but this was later retracted. REE identified two destabilising events, possibly linked to solar power generation, leading to a disconnection from the European grid.
Cyberattack Ruled Out?: Authorities in both countries confirmed there was no evidence of a cyberattack or sabotage. However, Simon Gallagher, managing director of UK Networks Services, said while he would be "very surprised if this is a cyber attack" , he then stated "I don't think we can rule it out."
Investigation Underway: Spanish judge José Luis Calama has launched a preliminary investigation into the recent power blackout, considering the possibility of cyber sabotage targeting critical infrastructure - which, if confirmed, could be treated as a terrorism offence. Relevant parties and police intelligence have been given a non-extendable 10-day deadline to submit reports determining the cause.
How Sentinel Spaces Supports Organisations During Major Power Outages
In the event of a major power outage - where traditional infrastructure like phone lines, internet access, and internal servers may be disrupted - Sentinel Spaces can play a vital role in keeping your people connected, your operations coordinated, and your response effective. Here's how:
⚡ 1. Out-of-Band Communication Maintains Connectivity
When your primary systems (like Teams, Slack, or internal networks) go down, Sentinel Spaces acts as a secure, cloud-hosted fallback platform accessible from mobile devices and battery-powered laptops.
Staff can continue to communicate in real time using secure messaging and the new built-in video crisis rooms - even when office systems are unavailable.
Because Spaces is hosted independently from your internal infrastructure, it provides resilience when local servers or networks fail.
🆘 2. Instant Activation of Crisis Rooms
You can pre-configure dedicated Spaces and video crisis rooms for different emergency scenarios, including utility failure or energy infrastructure collapse.
As soon as the outage is detected, designated video crisis rooms can be activated, bringing together key stakeholders in a single digital space for rapid coordination.
Embedded checklists, shared documents, maps, and task assignments keep the response structured and efficient.
📢 3. Multi-Channel Alerting to Reach Staff
Sentinel’s mass alerting system allows organisations to send emergency messages to employees via SMS, push notifications, email, and voice calls - even if one or more channels are down.
This ensures people are kept informed, safe, and directed to backup workspaces or protocols, regardless of their current location.
📲 4. Offline Document Access
Critical response plans, staff contact directories, site maps, and escalation procedures can be made available offline within the Sentinel app.
This is essential in a blackout where internet access may be intermittent or completely unavailable.
🔒 5. Built-in Redundancy and Secure Cloud Hosting
Sentinel Spaces is hosted across geographically distributed data centres with automatic failover, meaning it remains online even during regional outages.
All communications and data remain encrypted at rest and in transit, ensuring operational security even during vulnerable scenarios.
🧾 6. Audit Trails for Post-Incident Analysis
During and after the incident, all communications, decisions, and file changes are logged, helping organisations review their response and improve future preparedness.
Video and chat logs are stored securely and are accessible only to authorised personnel, supporting compliance with regulatory frameworks.
📞 7. Information Hotlines for Live Updates
Sentinel's Hotline feature allows organisations to set up dedicated phone lines that provide real-time updates to employees, stakeholders, or the public during a crisis.
These Hotlines can deliver pre-recorded messages or live information, ensuring that critical updates are accessible even when digital communication channels are compromised.
This tool is particularly valuable in scenarios where internet access is limited, but phone lines remain operational.
Book a Demo Today
Power outages and infrastructure failures are unpredictable - but your response doesn't have to be. Discover how Sentinel Spaces can keep your organisation connected, coordinated, and compliant when it matters most.
A digital marketing expert with 10+ years experience across the full range of disciplines. Edward has an extensive history as a writer, with more than 300+ published articles across the technology and digital publishing sectors.
