Lisbon, July 28, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese Minister for the Environment and Energy said on Monday that the country is better prepared for a blackout like the one in April and that improvements to the electricity system will be seen over the next three years with the package of 31 measures.
“I think the country is better prepared for a second blackout, which we hope will not happen […] I think that in the next three years we will see improvements in our national electricity system,” Maria da Graça Carvalho told journalists.
The minister presented a package of 31 measures today at the ministry in Lisbon, some of which had already been announced, to strengthen the security of the national electricity system, three months after the blackout on 28 April that affected the Iberian Peninsula.
The plan has five areas of action, namely the resilience and security of the national electricity system, rapid and effective network planning, the acceleration of renewable energies, the response capacity of critical infrastructure and international collaboration.
Immediate response measures include doubling the number of power stations providing the “black start” service from January, adding the Baixo Sabor and Alqueva power stations to those at Tapada do Outeiro and Castelo de Bode, and ensuring the operation of Tapada do Outeiro until 2030.
Autonomous authorisation is also planned for the country's electricity infrastructure managing company, REN, to invest €137 million to improve the operation and control capacity of the electricity grid, under the Electricity Transmission Network Development and Investment Plan (PDIRT-E) 2025-2034, allowing this amount to be implemented without the necessary parliamentary approval of the plan, which provides for a total investment of €1.7 billion.
Other measures include the auction of 750 megavolt-amperes (MVA) dedicated to batteries, €25 million in support to improve the response capacity of critical infrastructure, and the revision of the High Demand Zone model and increased compensation for local authorities.
“We are going to simplify the creation of high demand zones and immediately create a second high demand zone for Sines and study the possibility of others spread across the country,” said the minister, considering that this will enable investors to connect to the grid “quickly and easily”.
In terms of international cooperation, there are plans to work with Spain to create a coordinated capacity mechanism to ensure security of supply and efficiency.
According to Maria da Graça Carvalho, the most visible part of this Iberian cooperation "is the joint pressure on the European Union to speed up the issue of interconnections", which is already having practical effects, such as the loan taken out by the Spanish government from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to speed up interconnections with France.
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