Blackout highlighted the urgency of investing in the network

The president of E-Redes believes that the blackout on April 28 was a clear warning of the importance of increasing investment in electrical infrastructure, even if this implies additional costs on the electricity bill .

“Society in general has become more aware of the need to invest in networks,” said José Ferrari Careto in an interview with the Lusa news agency, stressing that it is “risky to let the networks go down and not invest.”

To ensure the modernization and robustness of the national electricity distribution network, E-Redes proposed an investment plan of 1.6 billion euros, between 2026 and 2030, in high and medium voltage infrastructures, already approved by the regulator (ERSE) and awaiting the Government's final decision.

For 2025 alone, the planned investment is 430 million euros, and this also includes the low-voltage infrastructures that serve domestic customers. However, the president emphasizes that this is a process that requires time and planning: “These are not things that we buy in the supermarket or that we can snap our fingers and have these investments made. We need to define plans, carry out network analysis, hire labor, execute and commission the investment.”

Regarding the impact on the electricity bill, the president of E-Redes — who spoke to Lusa as part of World Energy Day, which was celebrated on Thursday — guarantees that the effects will be residual.

“Our assessment was that the impact on tariffs was close to zero. ERSE itself points to an impact of 0.7% on final tariffs, and in real terms, with the increase in consumption, this value will be exceeded,” he assured.

Furthermore, he recalled that the cost of distribution represents only 10% of consumers' electricity bills, with the bulk going towards production, taxes and other charges.

From the company's perspective, it is also essential to ensure an attractive return on investments . “All these investments are financed by the company and then paid for, in small amounts, by the [access] tariff. But to do this, it is necessary to ensure an adequate return on capital”, he explained, adding that net profitability in Portugal is currently lower than that seen in Spain.

The president of E-Redes also highlighted the efforts made by the company in recent years to increase efficiency and reduce costs, namely with the digitalization of the network and the completion of the roll-out of smart meters.

Between 2020 and 2024, E-Redes' investment increased by 50%, reflecting the impact of the energy transition, electric mobility and the connection of renewable generation to the grid.

“Today, around 75% of distributed generation is connected to our grid ,” he stressed.

José Ferrari Careto stressed that the first lesson of the blackout is that “nothing can be taken for granted”, despite the usual high performance of the networks, which operate at levels close to “99.9999%, there is always a 0.00001 in which things can fail”.

The episode demonstrated that external failures can always occur and that it is essential to maintain disciplined, routine and pre-defined processes for a quick and effective response. “We acted very disciplined and quickly,” he commented.

“The company followed the script to the letter and behaved as expected, having managed to restore electricity in a space of time that, if we look at international benchmarking , ends up being quite good,” he added.

Another lesson considered important by the person in charge is the recognition of the natural aging of infrastructures in contrast with the continuous increase in the needs of society and the economy, creating a gap between the youth of the network and its demands.

To resolve this gap, he argues that it is essential to increase resilience, digitalization and replace obsolete equipment, ensuring a more modern, flexible and robust network.