Power outage: what to do?

In this article, we’ll focus on power outages caused by technical issues rather than administrative reasons, such as non-payment or service cancellations. We’ll be looking specifically at technical reasons.

A power outage could be due to several reasons:

• A breaker in your home or business electrical panel has tripped.
• The ICP (Power Control Switch) has tripped (it used to be in the breaker panel, but now it is built inside the meter).
• There’s a fault somewhere inside your own installation.
• There’s a fault in the distributor’s network.

It’s important to follow a specific order when troubleshooting, as this can save you time and possibly money. So let’s start with the simplest steps.

Electrical panel protections

Electrical panels contain two types of protection devices:

• Circuit breaker (magnetothermal): Trips when more power is being drawn than the line allows, either because too many appliances are running at once, the devices consume too much, or there’s a short circuit. It protects the wiring from burning out or causing a fire.
• Residual current device (RCD): Trips when some of the current is leaking to the ground. You’ve probably felt it before if you’ve ever touched something that gave you a shock or tingle. Its main role is to protect people from electric shocks.

Typically, a breaker panel includes several circuit breakers. They all look the same, like switches that flip up and down. In contrast, there’s usually only one RCD (sometimes there are two or more), which looks different—it might be a button or a rotating lever, and looks noticeably different from the others.

If the electricity goes out in just part of your home or business, it’s almost certainly because one of these protections has tripped.

Go to the electrical panel and look carefully: if any of the switches are down, try flipping it back up, but first make sure that no one at home is touching any wires, plugs, and so on.

If the switch trips again, there’s a problem.

If a circuit breaker won't stay on, there may be too many devices running at once, drawing more power than that line can handle. If the RCD keeps flipping, there’s a leakage somewhere. In both cases, proceed the same way.

Check if the switch is labelled with the area it controls: e.g., kitchen, bathroom, bedroom outlets... This helps you identify where the problem might be. If it’s not labelled, you’ll need to do a bit more work:

• Unplug one device from that line and try again. If unplugging a device stops the breaker from tripping, that device is likely the culprit: either it has a fault or is drawing too much power (circuit breaker) or it is faulty (RCD).
• If you unplug everything and the switch won't stay on, call a qualified electrician to inspect the installation. There might be a short circuit.

RCDs often trip in wet areas like kitchens or bathrooms. A wet appliance, a leak in a boiler, or an electric water heater can trigger it.

In short: unplug a device, test, unplug the next, test… If the issue is solved, you’ve found the problem. If not, call a qualified electrician. Do not call your electricity provider (retailer or distributor) in this case. If a breaker or RCD has tripped, it means electricity is still reaching your home.

The ICP

Almost all electricity supplies with up to 15 kW contracted power have an ICP (Power Control Switch) that trips if you demand more power than you’ve contracted. If the whole house loses power, it could be the ICP.

First, check the electrical panel as described above to ensure none of the switches are down.

Nowadays, the ICP is an electronic switch built inside the meter, so you can’t reset it from the electrical panel. However, you can carry out a ‘reset’ process: Turn off the main switch in your home or business, wait 3 seconds, and turn it back on. This helps the meter detect that nothing is drawing power and reconnects the ICP.

If you’re unsure which is the main switch, turn all of them off, wait at least 3 seconds, and turn them back on.

There are three possible outcomes:

• The power comes back: You simply demanded more power than contracted. Avoid running too many appliances at once. If it happens often, consider increasing your contracted power (contact your electricity provider).
• The power comes back temporarily and then goes out again: You’re still drawing more power than contracted. Unplug devices one by one and try again. The solution: avoid running too many devices at once or increase contracted power with your provider.
• The power doesn’t come back at all: It’s likely not just an issue of excessive consumption, and the ICP may not have disconnected the installation. There's probably a fault somewhere... but we still don’t know where.

Be careful if you have more than one electrical panel! Some homes or businesses have more than one electrical panel. This is quite common if you have an electric car charger in the garage or a self-consumption system (solar panels, etc.). In that case, you need to turn off the main switch on all panels before you try to reset. The meter needs to detect that nothing is drawing power to reset the installation; otherwise, it won’t do anything.

Where is the fault?

If you’ve followed the steps so far and you still have no power, there may be a fault, but now we need to determine its location. If the fault is inside the customer’s installation, they should contact a qualified electrician. If it’s in the distributor’s network, you should call your distributor’s emergency number (it's listed on all bills).

If your neighbours don't have power either or there’s no light in shared areas like stairwells in apartment buildings, it’s likely a distributor fault. If the outage only affects your supply, it’s likely a problem in your own installation. Before you do anything else, step outside and check with your neighbours or test the stairwell lights.

Remember, you may have a maintenance and repair service contracted with Endesa Energía or another company. If the problem is clearly within your installation, contact them.

Calling the distributor will usually involve answering a series of questions and performing checks like the ones described in this article to rule out an internal problem. Ultimately, if the issue affects only you, the distributor will probably offer to send a technician, but if the problem lies within your installation, you’ll likely have to pay for the call-out. That’s why it’s worth completing the checks yourself beforehand, just to be on the safe side.

After testing the ICP and checking the electricity panel, if the power doesn’t return even briefly, the problem could be in:

• Your installation
• The building's shared installation (if you live in an apartment building)
• The distributor’s system

If several neighbours in the same building have no power, the fault could be in:

• The building's shared installation
• The distributor’s system

At this point, it’s time to call your distributor’s emergency line, as it can be difficult to identify the issue without proper knowledge and equipment.

If the fault is in the distributor’s system, they will fix it free of charge. If it’s in the building’s installation, the homeowners’ association will have to hire a qualified electrician to resolve it.

When the fault occurs before the meter, it’s important to perform the reset process described earlier after the fault is fixed, since the power may have returned but the meter may not have been reconnected for safety reasons. If you’re unsure whether the issue has been resolved, try performing the reset periodically.