Leiria, Portugal, Feb. 1, 2026 (Lusa) - Around 167,000 E-Redes customers were still without electricity at 12:00 on Sunday, 49,900 of whom were in the municipality of Leiria, due to the effects of Storm Kristin, said the company's chairman.
"The absolute number of customers without electricity in Leiria [municipality] at this moment is 49,900. The data I have for the total is around 167,000 customers at noon today," José Ferrari Careto told journalists at a press conference at the Leiria Fire Station, where the municipality's operations centre is located.
José Ferrari Careto added that the number of customers continues to decline as E-Redes carries out its field work.
Today, at 8 a.m., around 180,000 E-Redes customers were still without power in mainland Portugal, most of them in the Leiria area, following Storm Kristin in the early hours of last Wednesday.
"I would like to remind you that we started this process with a peak of one million and ten thousand disconnections or connection points without power," he said at the press conference.
According to him, "15% to 20% of connection points are still without power," assuming that, as of today, the restoration process will "necessarily move a little slower."
This situation is because, "from a technical point of view," the company began the recovery through the high- and medium-voltage networks, and now we are going to "finish the medium voltage and start the low voltage."
"And as we make repairs, we are getting power to fewer customers for each repair we make," he explained.
In addition, the repairs to be carried out "are perhaps also greater," he said, given that the incidents, "both in medium voltage and low voltage, are also numerous."
The municipality of Leiria, with 130,000 inhabitants spread over 20 parishes, has 83,000 E-Redes customers.
E-Redes customers are energy delivery points, such as homes, businesses, or shops with electrical connections, making it difficult to quantify the number of people affected.
The passage of Storm Kristin through mainland Portugal on Wednesday caused at least five deaths, according to Civil Protection, as well as several injuries and displaced persons. The Marinha Grande City Council reports another fatality in the municipality. On Saturday, two other men died after falling from roofs they were repairing, one in the municipality of Batalha and the other in Alcobaça. In the early hours of Sunday morning, a man died in the municipality of Leiria from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator.
Fallen trees and structures, road and transport service disruptions, particularly railways, school closures, and power, water, and communication outages are the main material consequences of the storm.
Leiria, where the storm entered the country, Coimbra, and Santarém are the districts that have suffered the most damage.
The government declared a state of emergency, which the cabinet extended today until 8 February.
SR/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
