Payments

Spanish blackout reveals the importance of cash

The recent blackout in Spain and Portugal teaches us the importance of the essentials, such as cash.

Photo: Adobe Stock

April 29, 2025 by Galia Gomez — CEO, Serquo

On April 28, 2025, Spain experienced the most severe power outage in its recent history. At 12:33 p.m., a sudden failure in the power grid cut off electricity across the entire Iberian Peninsula and parts of southern France. The loss of 15 gigawatts in just five seconds triggered the automatic disconnection of the Spanish grid from the European system, creating a "zero-energy" event that paralyzed the country for hours.

This blackout left millions of people without electricity, severely impacting telecommunications, public transportation, airports and payment systems across the country. While power was gradually restored during the afternoon in some northern cities, major urban centers like Seville, Barcelona and Pamplona remained in the dark for hours.

The blackout left us with a lesson as clear as it is often forgotten: in times of high uncertainty, resilience does not rely on our technological sophistication but on our ability to adapt to the essentials.

Cash

For years, we have been moving toward an increasingly digital society. Mobile payments, instant transfers, digital wallets, and online banking have become part of our daily lives. However, our near-blind trust in digital infrastructure has made us vulnerable. Yesterday, when electricity suddenly failed and communication networks collapsed, we were reminded — in the harshest possible way — that our modern way of life stands on shaky ground when the basics are missing.

In this context, having a diversified form of wealth, especially a reserve of cash, is not an act of nostalgia but one of prudence. Financial diversification doesn't just mean holding different types of investments; it also means ensuring that part of our assets are immediately available, tangible, and independent of digital systems. In times of chaos, cash doesn't rely on charged batteries, network access, or online validations. It is simply a medium of immediate value.

ATMs as infrastructure

Yesterday's events also reignited the debate over the role of ATMs as critical infrastructure, due to ATMs going offline in the blackout. A functioning ATM is not only a means to access money when everything else fails—it provides peace of mind, access to basic goods, and a way to preserve individual dignity amid uncertainty. Once again, ensuring that ATMs are accessible to everyone — in large cities, small towns, and rural areas — should be considered an essential public service.

It is foreseeable that, after what we experienced, the demand for cash will increase in the coming months. This has happened in other crises: after an initial shock, people look for safety mechanisms to be better prepared for future disruptions.

And yet, we know memory is short. Once normalcy returns, once networks are stable again and headlines stop mentioning blackouts, we will likely return to the convenience of digital life and relegate cash to a forgotten corner of our lives — just like battery-powered radios.

Lessons learned

Still, we should learn. True modernity is not about blind trust in a single system, but about building a society capable of functioning even when the improbable occurs. Cash is not a step backward — it is a safety net. And ATMs, far from being relics of the past, are today a pillar ensuring that, no matter what happens, we can all move forward.

In an increasingly uncertain world, where technology is both our ally and our Achilles' heel, diversification is not just smart — it is essential.

About Galia Gomez

Galia Gómez is the CEO of Serquo, a Spanish technology company specializing in ATM Solutions, payment systems and financial software solutions. Graduated in Economics, she holds a Master in Social Sciences from the University of Toulouse. She has been leading different areas in IT companies for more than 20 years.

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