European Union (EU) Blackout Countries 2025

European Union Countries with Most Blackouts 2025

Romania

Romania has long struggled with high outage durations. In 2016, the average consumer endured 473 minutes without power annually, including 183 minutes of planned and 290 minutes of unplanned outages. By 2019, outages averaged 350 minutes/year, with planned interruptions of 171 minutes and unplanned ones at 179 minutes. Even today, Romania’s grid reliability remains under stress, driven by aging infrastructure, regional disparities, and storm vulnerability.

In 2025, Distribuție Energie Electrică Romania (DEER) completed a $2.3 million modernization of the Buzău Nord and Buzău Est substations, installing new transformers, SCADA integration, upgraded circuit breakers, and grounding systems to curb unplanned outages and improve stability. This upgrade is part of a larger DEER roadmap: in 2025–2029, it plans investments over 5.7 billion lei to modernize distribution networks and meet future demand challenges.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria has experienced moderate but persistent power reliability issues compared to other EU countries. Between 2017 and 2019, the average consumer faced 5.76 hours of downtime per year and 4.7 outage events annually, according to comparative SAIDI and SAIFI data published by Euronews and CEER. While this performance is significantly better than that of Romania, recent public data are scarce, and regulators have not published updated SAIDI figures since the pandemic. Occasional localized blackouts were reported in 2024–2025, often linked to storm damage and aging distribution infrastructure.

To strengthen reliability, Bulgaria is implementing major grid modernization projects with EU and EBRD support, including a €50 million investment in 2025 to deploy smart metering, reinforce transmission lines, and expand underground cabling. The initiative aims to reduce outage frequency and improve real-time monitoring as Bulgaria scales up renewable generation and cross-border energy exchanges within the European network.

Hungary

Hungary has maintained moderate electricity reliability compared to its regional peers but still experiences occasional large-scale outages. Between 2019 and 2020, average annual downtime stood at roughly 2.7 hours (162 minutes), with about 4.7 outage events per customer, placing the country mid-range in EU reliability rankings. More recent data from E.ON Hungary show improvement, with average interruptions dropping to 57 minutes per customer in 2023. Still, reliability challenges persist, often tied to aging infrastructure, storm damage, and limited grid flexibility. In July 2025, a severe windstorm caused power cuts to more than 350,000 households.

To address these vulnerabilities, Hungary is expanding automation and investing in smarter infrastructure. In 2025, E.ON completed a HUF 2.2 billion modernization project in Veszprémvarsány, installing advanced transformers and control systems to improve response times and voltage stability. Meanwhile, the government’s 2024 grid modernization plan is after automation, storage integration, and digital oversight as key steps toward reducing outage duration and preparing Hungary’s power system for higher renewable penetration.

European Union Countries with Potential Blackouts 2025

Austria

Potential European Union blackout countries include Austria. This nation began to prepare for possibly living without electrical power in the last quarter of 2021. Austria became the first to warn people that live there about an EU blackout. Rise in gas prices and dwindling fuel supplies contributed to this decision.

Switzerland

This country also reportedly began to talk about preparing for a blackout in 2021. Switzerland could end up without power for at least two days in 2025. The Swiss government plans to incorporate renewable energy sources, including hydropower, however. They may not need as much electricity as they used to anyway.

However, Switzerland does also face losing some of the electrical supply they have if they sign an agreement with the European Union. Apparently, this country currently has power in more than one way right now.

They currently may have a potential monopoly of the Star of Laufenburg located in the Canton of Aargau, but they may lose support from the EU if they continue the power project alone. This may mean higher energy costs for the country at least until the renewable resources are fully implemented.

Spain

Along with other countries making the same preparations, the country of Spain found out they might end up without power for a few weeks. News spread from Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner to here and several other locations.

Tanner urged citizens to prepare with blankets, candles, non-perishable foods, and other emergency supplies. European University of Valencia Business Professor Roberto Gómez agreed.