The great blackout that shook the Iberian Peninsula on Monday is rekindling the debate on the management of REN and the risks of dependence on Spain’s energy importation.
The blackout that left Portugal in the dark for about 11 hours on Monday is bringing the debate an old topic discussed in politics-the effects of privatization of public companies that generate important infrastructures, in this particular case, to National Energy Networks (REN).
The subject is particularly relevant that, although Portugal is capable of being self -sufficient in energy production and even recently beaten successive records in renewable energy, I was importing 30% of its electricity Spain due to the cheapest price.
Critics point out that Profit Prioritization Made by private companies, it makes us dependent on Spain in emergency situations and can be a threat to national sovereignty.
“Spain falls and we fell round to the floor in a second fraction? Portugal is an independent country Let me know, almost a thousand years ago, ”says Clemente Pedro Nunes, an energy expert, heard by.“ We have in Portugal an installed production capacity, theoretically ready to work, of 22 thousand MW. What was being consumed at the time would walk at 8,000 MW. Therefore, the available power is very large, It’s bad“It stresses.
These concerns are not from now. By 2022, several experts had already warned of the risks of a widespread blackout in the Portuguese power grid due to the closure of the thermoelectric plants of Sines and Pego, which further increased the dependence of Spain.
João Bernardo, Director General of Energy at the time, said that the national system lived “About embers” and Clemente Pedro Nunes described the situation as “inconceivable and revolting“.
If in Portugal the alerts have come since 2022, a report published two months ago by the Electrical Spanish Red (Ree) also predicted the “hypothetical danger” of a blackout due to possible “generation disconnections” of electricity that risk being “severe” and “significantly” affecting supply due to the high penetration of renewable energy sources.
Redeia, a parent company, also issued alerts due to the closure of coal, natural gas and nuclear in Spain, which left the country’s electrical system more vulnerable to unforeseen.
With the growing vulnerability of the system in Spain and with the greatest dependence on Portugal in relation to neighbors, our country was eventually dragged in the failure.
Speaking to, Luís Mira Amaral, former Minister of Industry and Energy, criticized the delay in replacement of the Portuguese energy network. “ Portuguese generation capacitywhich was stopped for economic reasons, ”he assumes.
“There was naturally a trend for greater imports, because there are hours of the day leaves cheaper import electricity of Spain than putting our power plants to produce. It is, in the background, comparing import costs with the costs of the variables that the centrals could produce, and this balance shows that sometimes it is more favorable to import from Spain. From an economic point of view, it is justifiable, ”explains the expert.
Mira Amaral shines that “what is not justifiable is, from the moment the Spanish network has a problem and has to disconnect from the Portuguese network, we enter a panic.” Portuguese centers “have a quick response capacity, but they have not entered because only two of them have the so -called Black Start system” that allows you to “again inject power into the network and gradually restore services”.
But there are experts who argue that the nationalization of REN would not prevent situations like this week’s blackout. “It does not seem to me that the public or private nature of the network operator, in this case, Make a lot of difference. Because we have exactly the example of a 100% public network operator (in Spain) and a 100% private network operator, or rather on public service granting a (REN), and the blackout occurred in both countries, ”says former Minister João Galamba, in an interview with.
“We are called crazy”
Mariana Mortágua was one of the political faces that took advantage of the occasion of blackout to remember the risks of the privatization of REN.
“We have been saying this for years and we have been called crazy because we want to nationalize Ren and EDP and Now suddenly the country has realized why“, Defended the blocked leader.
The deputy of the Left Bloc believes that nationalization “is today more important than ever”. “More than ever, it is proved that Portugal’s sovereignty depends on its ability to manage, to control the electrical distribution systems and the electricity network,” he said.
“It is obvious that a public network would not avoid all problems, but this event showed us fragilityhe showed us how sensitive the management of this public network is in case of being in the service of interests that are not the interest of the country, ”he argued.
Montenegro does not rule out nationalization
The prime minister is open to a new nationalization of REN if ad wins the elections and again form government. Confronted with this question during the impression conference this Tuesday, Luís Montenegro said he was “available to deepen without any problem”.
Montenegro points out that “these things They should not be hot“But it emphasizes that it has already anticipated the debate about REN” long before this subject could gain the evidence it won, the result of the blackout. “
For two years and even as opposition leader, one, Montenegro had already stated that “It is in the strategic interest of Portugal Having the power grid in possession of the state ”, but also recalled that nationalization“ depends on public finances ”.
Privatizations have already ran badly in other countries
There have been bad experiences in several other countries that have also privatized their electrical networks, from rampant prices or failures in response to natural disasters.
In 1996, California passed a law that deregularized and privatized partially your electricity market. Companies that provided public services were required to buy electricity from the gross distribution markets instead of generating them themselves. Prices were limited to consumers, but not for the gross markets.
This situation led to energy companies, such as Enron, took the opportunity to explore the system by creating an artificial scarcity that has triggered prices up to 800%. Public service concessionaires had to buy electricity at very inflated prices, but failed to pass these costs to consumers.
In 2000 and 2001, California faced constant mass blackouts due to the incapacity of companies to buy energy. The state eventually had to spend thousands of millions of dollars on emergency electricity purchases.
Still in the United States, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, in 2017, Puerto Rico’s public services company was privatized after the destruction of most of the power grid. Network management went to Luma Energy, but residents complained of constant cuts and an even worse situation than when the network was in the hands of the state. The defense eventually generated protests on the streets and a request for cancellation of the contract by the government.
In 2016, a blackout in the state of Australia do Sul left the weaknesses of the system, which was betting strongly in renewable energy and was largely private.
The crisis was caused by a large storm that overthrew critical transmission lines and caused a Domino effect of blackoutseventually leaving the whole state dark. Critics argued that the privatized and profit -oriented system led to cutting cuts to reinforce the resilience of the network and poor coordination between the various operators.
We now have to wait to see if the blackout in Portugal will motivate a similar political debate about the future of REN.
