The Popular Party has registered in Congress a broad list of witnesses for the investigation commission on the interruption of the electricity supply and communications of April 28, 2025, an incident that affected a large part of the Iberian Peninsula and left millions of citizens without service.
The proposal, presented in accordance with article 44 of the Congress Regulations, includes more than 40 appearances among political leaders, regulators, directors of the main electricity companies, and technical and academic experts. The objective is to analyze blackout, evaluate whether existing prevention measures were sufficient, and determine what normative or regulatory changes should be adopted to prevent a similar crisis from occurring again.
Among the proposed names are high-ranking officials from the Government and regulatory bodies, as well as heads of the main companies in the energy sector. In the political and institutional sphere, the PP proposes the appearance of the third vice-president and minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, of the Secretary of State for Energy, Joan Groizard, and of the Director General of Energy Policy and Mines, Manuel García Hernández. It also requests the presence of the president of the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), Cani Fernández, as well as Rocío Prieto, director of Energy of the body, and Ángel García Castillejo, president of the Regulatory Supervision Chamber.
Teresa Ribera
The list also includes Cristina Lobillo, Director General for Energy of the European Commission, and Teresa Ribera, former Vice President of the Government and current European Commissioner.
The main operator of the electrical system will also take center stage in the proposed appearances. The PP requests the presence of Beatriz Corredor, president of Redeia —parent company of Red Eléctrica—, as well as several company officials, including Concepción Sánchez, General Director of Operations; Juan Bola, Director of Real-Time Operations; Tomás Domínguez, Director of Programming; Eduardo Prieto, Director of Services for Operations; and Ángel Mahou, General Director of Transmission.
Furthermore, the parliamentary group proposes the appearance of the full team of the electrical control center (CECOEL) that was on duty the day of the blackout between 10:00 and 13:00 hours, including the operators and the shift supervisor, considering that their testimony could be key to reconstructing what happened in real time during the crisis.
The PP's proposal also includes the top executives of the country's main electricity companies: Mario Ruiz-Tagle, CEO of Iberdrola España; José Damián Bogas, CEO of Endesa; Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, chairman and CEO of EDP; and Francisco Reynés, chairman and CEO of Naturgy. Likewise, the appearance of the head of the Endesa Operations Center for southern Spain is requested.
Jordi Sevilla
Alongside them, the list includes representatives of energy sector associations, such as Julio César Nieto, president of the Association of Independent Energy Traders (ACIE); José María González Moya, general director of the Association of Renewable Energy Companies (APPA); Marina Serrano, president of AELEC; and Pedro González, general director of the Association of Companies with High Energy Consumption (AEGE).
The proposal is completed with a large group of independent experts and academics specialized in electrical engineering and energy regulation. Among them are researchers from the Institute for Technological Research (ICAI) of the Comillas Pontifical University, such as Luis Rouco, Enrique Lobato, Francisco Echavarren and José Ignacio Linares; professor Pablo Arboleya, from the University of Oviedo; Alberto Ramos, from the Polytechnic University of Madrid; or Antonio Canoyra, professor of electrical engineering at Comillas and former member of the CNMC.
Also proposed is the appearance of specialists in regulation and energy economics such as Jorge Sanz, from NERA Economic Consulting; Nemesio Fernández-Cuesta; or Vicente López-Ibor, as well as former heads of the electricity system, among them Miguel Duvisón, former general director of Operations of Red Eléctrica, and Jordi Sevilla, former president of the company.
A failure with “multifactorial” causes
The technical report prepared by the Government concluded that the origin of the blackout was multifactorial. Among the detected factors are overvoltages and oscillations in the electrical grid, problems in system control and the disconnection of some generation plants, in addition to failures in the response from part of the electrical generation.
The analyses also detected a sudden loss of generation capacity in a matter of seconds, which triggered the collapse of the electrical system. However, the technical report does not attribute concrete responsibilities to companies or operators.
The definitive causes remain unclarified
Despite the preliminary technical conclusions, the Government has not yet offered a definitive explanation that identifies clear responsibilities. Questions persist about exactly which facilities failed, which operators may have made errors, and whether there were deficiencies in the management of the electrical system.
The parliamentary commission will now have as its objective to clarify those responsibilities, both political and regulatory and business, in one of the largest energy incidents recorded in the Iberian Peninsula in recent years.