The date marks exactly three months since the incident, and according to the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, the objective is to “act now” based on initial technical conclusions and prepare the country to avoid or minimize future impacts.
“The final conclusions of the independent report are not yet available, but there are already enough technical recommendations for us to start acting. And that is what we are going to do,” stated the minister after a meeting in Brussels with the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), which is conducting the European audit of the incident.
Among the planned actions are enhancing energy storage, increasing the emergency response capacity of the system (‘black start’) by doubling the number of plants ready to autonomously restart the electrical grid to four, and measures to expedite the licensing of energy communities and self-consumption projects.
Solutions are also being considered to improve the resilience of critical infrastructures, such as health centers or communication systems, through the installation of renewable production systems with batteries. “We need to better prepare society to react to such situations,” noted the minister.
The package, which was also discussed at the same meeting, will include legislative proposals to facilitate the implementation of these solutions, as well as the strengthening of voltage control at renewable plants, in line with recent measures adopted in Spain.
The minister also assured that the report being prepared by ACER will be “truly independent” and that the presentation of its findings is expected by the end of 2025, following the last technical meeting scheduled for October.
Nonetheless, the minister confirmed that some preliminary conclusions have already been validated: the blackout originated in the southwest of Spain, was caused by several combined factors, including voltage control failures, and there are no indications of a cyberattack. These are the same conclusions recently presented by the Spanish government.
When asked about potential compensation claims against Spain, the minister stated that this is not the current focus of the government. “Above all, we want to deeply understand what happened, identify the real causes, and take measures to prevent recurrence,” she emphasized.
Maria da Graça Carvalho also argued that the incident, which left Portugal and Spain without electricity for nearly 12 hours, has accelerated European cooperation.
The minister announced that a recent agreement was signed between the governments of France and Spain and the European Investment Bank to finance, with approximately 1.6 billion euros, the enhancement of one of the electrical interconnections with the Iberian Peninsula—a longstanding demand of Portugal.
Regarding energy prices, particularly fuels, the minister expressed cautious optimism despite the instability in the Middle East.
“Portugal is relatively protected due to the diversity of suppliers and routes. Our imports mainly come from the Atlantic [not the Strait of Hormuz], originating from Brazil, Algeria, the United States, and Nigeria,” she explained, emphasizing that the government will continue to monitor the situation in coordination with industry entities.
