BARCELONA, Spain — The blackout that engulfed the Iberian Peninsula on Monday was chaotic and stressful for many. But it had a silver lining: People were forced away from their screens and into the “real” world, connecting with the present and one another. Some Spaniards and Portuguese embraced their day without power.

The sweeping power outage that hit Spain and Portugal this week has raised questions about the electricity grid in a region not normally known for blackouts.

It is rare to have such a widespread outage across the Iberian Peninsula, with a combined population of about 60 million people.