Andalusian business leaders are seeking definitive explanations for a recent unprecedented incident in which Spain experienced a sudden loss of 60% of its energy generation for five seconds, resulting in widespread power outages across the peninsula.

This event significantly disrupted daily activities, leaving many areas without electricity for nearly the entire day.

The President of the Andalusian Business Confederation (CEA), Javier González de Lara, emphasized that the lack of clarity on the causes of the outage is critical for businesses contemplating claims for lost profits or damages.

According to González de Lara, the forthcoming explanations will dictate the nature of potential claims in the following days, noting that a serious cause could lead to complex compensation scenarios for affected companies.

González de Lara described the day as "difficult" for Andalusian enterprises, highlighting that many businesses had to halt production processes.

This included significant impacts on the agri-food sector, as well as hospitality and construction industries, which faced considerable lost profits due to the inability to operate.

The effects extended further into retail distribution, with a mix of experiences reported by supermarkets.

Some were able to operate through backup generators, while others faced outages, complicating efforts to quantify the overall financial impact at this early stage.

The Confederation of Employers of Seville (CES) is actively working with its members to assess the situation and provide a clearer understanding of the economic repercussions.

Antonio Garamendi, the President of the CEOE, has estimated that the outage could result in an economic loss equivalent to 0.1% of Spain's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), translating to approximately €1.6 billion.

Considering Seville’s contribution of 3.2% to the national GDP, the extrapolated local impact could reach around €50 million.

However, these figures remain rough estimates, and precise evaluations are expected to take days to finalize.

These disruptions occur at a critical time for Seville, just ahead of the May Bridge and the city's annual fair festivities, with the outage exacerbating delays in deliveries, particularly on one of the key days for preparations at the fairground.

Both the CEA and CES have pointed to the necessity for reassessment of energy supply reliability following this incident.

CES has highlighted the need for an increased mix of energy generation methods, while CEA has called for the exploration of alternative mechanisms to function effectively during such critical episodes using more traditional systems.