António Pedro Santos / Lusa
Passenger gets bus in Campo Grande to the dark due to the April blackout.
Iberian Peninsula is an “energy island”. Portuguese delay in reactivation of the network after the blackout multiplied by four the time required to recover the stability of the system. France has not helped.
April 28, 2025 was the largest in modern Europe. It only illuminated us about two facts: more than 60 million people have been without electricity for several hours and Portugal and Spain have weaknesses to resolve in the energy sector.
Portugalin particular, it emerges as the most vulnerable European country This type of incidents, according to the British Emergian British Studies Center, specializing in energy transition, quoted by Thursday.
The Iberian Peninsula remains a “Energy Island”with connections very limited to the European electrical system. Currently, the interconnection between Spain and France does not exceed 3% of the installed capacity, far from the goals set by the European Union: 10% until 2020 and 15% by 2030. In the Portuguese case, the problem is even more serious.
While Spain benefited from the immediate support of the interconnections with France and Morocco to reactivate your network after the blackout, Portugal remained isolateddependent only on its central blackstart – The natural gas center in Gondomar and the Water Center of Bode Castle. The result was evident: Spain managed to restart the system in about an hour; Portugal took almost five hours to restore its network.
According to Entso-e, an association that brings together the managers of the electricity transport networks in Europe, the Portuguese delay multiplied by four The time required to recover system stability. This disadvantage, associated with the lack of external support alternatives, makes Portugal one of the most exposed countries in Europe for prolonged blackouts.
Embber’s study also recalls that, In the last five years, three major blackouts in the European Union have been avoided thanks to the existence of interconnections. Regions such as Ukraine and Moldova have been able to maintain electrical stability in a war context due to the support of interconnections with EU countries.
The severity of the blackout led Lisbon and Madrid to unite diplomatic efforts to press Brussels to advance with the interconnection projects with France. In late May, the Iberian governments sent a joint letter to the European Commission, arguing that this It should not be a problem only from Portugal and Spain, but from the entire European Union.
The appeal gains strength when it is recalled that in 2021 two interconnections through the Pyrenees were included in the European Union priority project list. However, the Resistance from Franceinvoking environmental and social impacts, has been making the advance. For Lisbon and Madrid, the theme should be elevated at the European strategic level, as in any other situation that threatens the Union’s domestic market.
Beyond energy security, the question of interconnection It is also essential for the full integration of renewable energy into the European system. Portugal and Spain have a high potential in solar and wind energy, but the lack of export capacity limits the exploitation of this resource, leads to higher electricity prices and compromises the Iberian contribution to European decarbonization.
Embber’s report goes further by framing the issue in the context of Hybrid War ongoing in Europe. For Pawel Czyzak, director of the organization, energy networks are under constant attack, with Russia resorting to sabotage and misinformation strategies. In this scenario, interconnections are no longer just a technical mechanism and assume themselves as the “backbone of energy security” of the continent.
But the April blackout can also serve as a catalyst for change. The Portuguese Association of Renewable Energy (APPLY) argues that the episode must be seen as an opportunity to reinforce European resilience and energy sovereignty.
