“I believe the country is better prepared for a second blackout, let’s hope it doesn’t happen, […] I think in the next three years we will see improvements in our national electrical system,” Maria da Graça Carvalho told journalists.
The minister today presented, at the ministry in Lisbon, a package of 31 measures, some of which had already been announced, to enhance the security of the National Electrical System, three months after the blackout on April 28 that affected the Iberian Peninsula.
The plan has five areas of focus: resilience and security of the National Electrical System, rapid and effective network planning, acceleration of renewable energies, the capacity of critical infrastructure response, and international collaboration.
Among the immediate response measures is the doubling, from January, of the number of plants providing the autonomous system start-up service (‘black start’), adding the Baixo Sabor and Alqueva plants to those at Tapada do Outeiro and Castelo de Bode, ensuring the operation of Tapada do Outeiro until 2030.
An autonomous authorization is also foreseen for REN to invest 137 million euros to improve the operation and control capacity of the electrical grid, within the scope of the 2025-2034 Electricity Transmission Network Development and Investment Plan (PDIRT-E), allowing this amount to be executed without the necessary parliamentary review of the plan, which provides for a total of 1.7 billion euros in investment.
Highlighted measures also include the auction of 750 megavolt-amperes (MVA) dedicated to batteries, 25 million euros in support to improve the response capacity of critical infrastructures, and the revision of the model of High Demand Zones and strengthening of compensations to municipalities.
“We will make the creation of high demand zones simpler and, from now, create a second high demand zone for Sines and study the possibility of others scattered across the country,” the minister pointed out, considering that, in this way, investors will be able to connect to the network “simply and quickly.”
At the level of international collaboration, it is planned to coordinate with Spain to create a coordinated capacity mechanism that ensures supply security 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 accelerate the matter of interconnections,” which is already having practical effects, such as, for example, the loan contracted by the Spanish government from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to accelerate interconnections with France.
