Latest news and stories about grid resilience in Portugal for expats and residents.
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The minister says climate change may force Portugal to “think about the grid differently”, and concedes more power lines may need to be put underground, even though she cannot specify the cost of doing so.
The European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jorgensen, was in Portugal from Friday to Monday. He even visited some of the areas affected by Storm Kristin. On Monday he held a press conference in Lisbon alongside the Minister of the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho. The minister indicated that they discussed Portugal's needs ...
The minister compared Portugal's situation with that of other European countries, such as Spain and Italy, where the share of underground networks reaches around 45%, advocating a balanced approach between costs for consumers and taxpayers and the gains in resilience.
The Minister of the Environment and Energy today called for power lines to be buried to strengthen the resilience of the electricity network, at a time when around 149,000 customers remain without electricity following Storm Kristin.
The European Commission today expressed solidarity with Portugal over the impacts of severe weather, calling for a coordinated response, recourse to the Solidarity Fund and investment in more resilient electricity networks.
João Jesus Ferreira, an electrical engineer at the Instituto Superior Técnico, warns of the importance of implementing underground electricity networks in Portugal, but cautions they may face a barrier: “they cost between three and six times as much”.
João Jesus Ferreira says the radial and largely overhead design of the Portuguese electricity grid explains the scale of power supply failures. The electrical engineer calls for cleared corridors alongside the lines and structural changes to reduce the impact of extreme events.
The World Energy Outlook 2025 report describes the event on the Iberian Peninsula as a reference laboratory for the future energy transition Europe will face.
