Spanish PM asks for time in blackout probe and snubs blame on renewables

The April 28th outage cut internet and telephone connections, halted trains, shut businesses and plunged cities into darkness across Spain and Portugal as well as briefly affecting southwestern France.

Fierce debate has raged in Spain over the possible causes, but no firm conclusion has emerged as the authorities gather and analyse data from electricity companies and the national grid operator.

"The process will take its time because we will have to examine meticulously around 756 million pieces of data," Sánchez told parliament, promising to "get to the bottom of the matter".

"Citizens want to know what happened... what we will not do is prematurely close any debate. We will not rush to conclusions," added Sánchez.

The Socialist premier said preliminary technical information indicated that three incidents occurred in southern Spain on April 28th, the last of which sparked the grid collapse.

Previous official information had pointed to two incidents five seconds apart which triggered a loss of power generation equivalent to 60 percent of Spain's electricity consumption at the time.

The right-wing opposition has questioned the Socialist-led coalition government's phase-out of nuclear energy and reliance on renewables, saying they made Spain more vulnerable to blackouts.

Sánchez again insisted there was "no empirical evidence" to show that "an excess of renewables or the lack of nuclear power plants" caused the crisis.

"Be wary of those who tell you this is either about renewables or nuclear energy, because it isn't," the Spanish premier added, referring to the right-wing bloc as "amateur lobbyists for the big electricity companies".

Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said Sánchez had demonstrated "arrogance" and warned his conservative Popular Party would not allow the crisis to pass "without resignations".

With extra reporting from Alex Dunham, The Local Spain editor.