Lisbon, April 26, 2026 (Lusa) – The parliamentary working group investigating the blackout of 28 April 2025 has recommended that the government establish minimum energy autonomy requirements of at least 72 hours for critical infrastructure.
According to the draft report seen by Lusa, the group’s rapporteur, PSD (Social Democratic Party) MP Paulo Moniz, said that the Chair of the Energy Services Regulatory Entity (ERSE) had emphasised during hearings that resilience should be ensured locally and cost-effectively, rather than through the over-sizing of the national grid.
He said that “critical infrastructure, [such as] hospitals, health centres, care homes and emergency facilities, must have autonomous emergency power solutions appropriate to their specific critical loads”.
For this reason, the working group recommended that “the government establish, through legislation or regulation, minimum energy autonomy requirements for critical infrastructure”, set at a minimum of 72 hours for the most critical facilities, and no less than 24 hours for the remainder, in accordance with the recommendation of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, saying that these requirements should be subject to mandatory periodic audits with publicly reported results.
The group called for a revision of fuel storage limits, currently capped at 500 litres, saying they are "manifestly insufficient" for prolonged events and that other European nations allow up to 3,000 litres.
The working group highlighted “the need for the formal integration of food retailers and pharmacies within the framework of critical infrastructure and for a review of the Strategic Fuel Supply Network, covering the technical capacity of the stations, the extension of access to critical entities not currently covered, the definition of pre-established, tested and coordinated protocols for refuelling generators at critical infrastructure sites, and the review of activation criteria and procedures, to enable swifter and more operationally effective decisions in scenarios of widespread power grid failure”.
The report also highlights other requirements: a structural review of SIRESP's (Integrated System of Emergency and Security Networks of Portugal) architecture; the establishment of minimum autonomy requirements for electronic communications networks in critical infrastructure; and the development of an emergency alert and communication mechanism independent of commercial networks.
Regarding the impact on citizens, the group urged a review of the compensation scheme for power supply interruptions and a deadline for ERSE's regulatory classification of the blackout, and called for a consolidated estimate of the total damage.
The report also recommended that the government submit a report to parliament on the operationalisation of the government’s crisis response structure, established in response to the weaknesses in government coordination exposed by the blackout, and the development of “a national culture of crisis preparedness”.
Regarding the safety and operation of the electricity system, the group called for an extension of voltage control requirements to existing renewable energy plants, a reinforced monitoring and voltage control within the grid, the review of system defence plans for overvoltage scenarios, regular testing programmes and the completion and publication of the Total System Cost study as an energy policy tool.
The group also highlighted the importance of institutionalising Iberian operational coordination, accelerating interconnections with the continental European grid, the standardisation of operational voltage limits at the Iberian level, the strengthening of the European framework for supervision and data reporting, the introduction of a capacity mechanism in Portugal, the development of specific market products for contracting services in this area, and an open data policy for the electricity system.
The proposal will be analysed by the parliamentary groups and may still be amended, according to the PSD.
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