Unexpected damage to power stations hit Britain’s electricity system a few hours before Spain and Portugal sink into darkness from extensive power outages, as revealed today by Mail Online.

The staff of the Energy System (NESO) control hall (NESO) observed unusual activity on two occasions on Sunday, early in the morning and evening.

The first incident concerns the frequency of power, which shifts unexpectedly at 2am. Due to a stop at the Keadby 2 natural gas plant in Lincolnshire, Telegraph said. This was followed by the unexplained damage to the Viking Link interconnection, a power cord that extends for nearly 500 miles between the United Kingdom and Denmark.

The power frequency was shifted again at 6 pm, but the cause is unknown – and NESO officials, which manages the British network, are investigating it.

However, Neso said there was no indication at this stage that the holidays were linked to each other or that they were associated with the failure of the system yesterday in Spain, Portugal and southern France.

A NESO spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We are still looking at the weekend events. However, it is extremely unlikely that these events are linked to each other or related to events in the European electricity network on Monday. Great Britain’s electricity grid was not affected by the electricity system incident in the European electricity grid on Monday”