Lisbon, May 29, 2025 (Lusa) - Portuguese energy producer EDP's CEO for Iberia, Pedro Vasconcelos, warns of the importance of energy independence in Europe, stating that this issue is now “side by side” with the continent's defence priorities.
In an interview with Lusa on Thursday, as part of World Energy Day, Pedro Vasconcelos stressed that "defence and energy independence are not separate realities". In this regard, he hopes that the increase in defence costs planned by the European Union will not have a negative impact on investment in the energy sector.
"Europe is clearly energy dependent. It depended excessively and exclusively on Russia, and Germany learned this lesson first," said the CEO, also highlighting the impact of gas prices. "We pay between five and ten times more for gas than we did before Covid-19," pointed out the CEO of EDP's business in the Iberian Peninsula.
According to the official, "every new electron we produce, whether from the sun, wind or water, is one less electron we have to burn gas for," taking the opportunity to reinforce the need to accelerate the integration of renewables into the European system.
Energy independence "has the dual advantage of, first, avoiding dependence on the United States, or Russia, or even the Middle East. And second, it brings competitiveness to Europe," he explained, stressing that countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula are investing heavily in renewables to reduce their dependence on gas.
Asked about the biggest obstacles to energy development in the Iberian Peninsula, the EDP CEO highlighted the difficulties in licensing and environmental approval processes, which are "extremely difficult, lengthy and with little visibility on deadlines".
"Accelerating licensing and making the rules clearer is essential," he argued, pointing out that the European Commission is planning mechanisms to speed up projects in areas already impacted by renewable energy.
In addition, he pointed to the need for investment and agility in transmission and distribution networks to ensure the connection of new renewable sources. "Digitisation, automation and quality of information are fundamental to ensuring the visibility and efficient functioning of the system, especially with the growth of self-consumption," he added.
Looking ahead, the EDP CEO predicts that in the near future, perhaps in less than 10 years, consumers will also be producers and managers of their energy in a smart, interconnected network.
In the near future, "the roles of consumers and producers will become blurred over time," he said, highlighting the concept of ‘prosumers’ — consumers who also produce energy.
According to the official, electric cars could start injecting energy into the grid when needed, "as long as the system allows it," which requires regulation, infrastructure and digitisation. This decentralisation, he concluded, "brings resilience and redundancy to the system," making it more robust and sustainable.
Asked to comment on which areas will need to accelerate more to ensure the energy transition moves forward - production, distribution, consumption or regulation - the EDP CEO was categorical: "All of them".
He highlighted the progress made in recent decades, emphasising the transition "from 50 producers in Portugal to around 40,000", and pointed to improvements in distribution and transport, with "a quality of service we have never had before, at an increasingly lower cost".
The director also pointed to strong demand for new connections to the electricity grids, driven by data centres and industries that want to set up in the Iberian Peninsula. "In Spain alone, there is 70 gigawatts of new consumption wanting to come in, while Portugal has 23 gigawatts of installed capacity. But there is still not enough response, because we are waiting for investments and decisions from operators," he lamented.
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