The Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, has characterized the recent energy network failure as “a very serious event” and emphasized that it was not of “national origin,” while acknowledging that the government is “aware there are aspects to improve.”
“It wasn’t just bad luck. It was a very serious event. A severe crisis in the energy system, with an origin that is not national. All the information we have now does not suggest the presence of a cyberattack, at least not within national territory.” Leitão Amaro mentioned that they are monitoring the situation alongside their Spanish counterparts and have requested the European Agency to conduct an audit, he revealed during an interview with SIC’s Jornal da Noite.
The minister also addressed criticisms from opposition parties, asserting that “there was no silence on the part of the Government and the Authorities.”
During the incident, he remarked, “In a protocol like this, the most appropriate means to communicate, as proved throughout the day, is the radio. Just 30 minutes after the event, I was communicating to the country through the radios and, later on, televisions, explaining what was happening, prioritizing the restoration of energy, and ensuring essential services, notably health services, while urging calm and discouraging accelerated consumption.” Leitão Amaro expressed optimism that the “situation would be resolved in the upcoming hours.”
He reiterated that communication was made “through radio, television,” and utilized social media, highlighting the several announcements by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.
“We started with radio, televisions, and social networks, and the Civil Protection authority utilized SMS. We must, in the future, evaluate the speed and efficiency of all these means. But what I can tell you is that if we are mostly focused on discussing the communication aspect today, it is because the operational response and the continuity of services were ensured,” he emphasized.
Leitão Amaro praised the country’s response, saying, “It is remarkable how the country, workers, the public’s civility, and security forces managed to keep hospitals and all critical services operational.”
The minister noted that unlike Spain, Portugal did not require support from France and Morocco to restart the system, achieving it swiftly. “Today, our schools were operational and holding classes. Out of 809, only 15 were not. This was due to an extraordinary mobilization of all services, showing excellent coordination. We acknowledge the anxiety experienced by the public, which is why we say that going forward, it is not enough to just use current communication tools; we must identify areas for improvement,” he stressed.
Regarding the SIRESP failures, the minister revealed that the Government was circulating a project among ministries to restructure SIRESP by integrating it into the national internal security network, within a unit in the Ministry of Internal Administration, and later enhancing the infrastructure’s quality.
He stated, “SIRESP is clearly one of the several aspects we need to improve. Furthermore, we have made critical decisions this year, including extending the Tapada do Outeiro (natural gas plant) operations until the end of the next year, which proved wise today.”
Leitão Amaro noted that there is an ongoing process to contract two more plants, referring to Baixo Sabor and Alqueva, to bolster ‘black start’ capacity.
“The Portuguese should know this. This time, the State ensured that essential services were operational. Both the State and this Government maintained calmness, with the Prime Minister showing leadership, knowing that there are areas for betterment, including the rapidity and efficiency of communications, especially for people without mobile networks. If the situation had lasted longer, there would have been another issue — people wouldn’t have had mobile devices, as batteries would have drained. Therefore, we must improve in these aspects,” he said.
The Minister of the Presidency acknowledged that there are lessons to learn, which is why an independent technical commission was proposed, not only to evaluate what could have been better but also to derive lessons. “We have already drawn some lessons for improvement in the future,” he concluded.
