“In total, these measures imply an investment of around €400 million, not all of which will be included in the tariff, some are from European funds,” said the Minister of the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, at a press conference at the ministry in Lisbon, marking three months since the power outage that affected Portugal and Spain on April 28.

The government official assured that these 31 measures, some of which have already been implemented, will have a residual impact on tariffs, estimating that for every 25 euros in electricity bills, there will be a one-cent increase, or 0.04%.

Among the measures is the expediting of the 137 million euro investment to strengthen the operation and control capacity of the electricity grid, already planned by REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais (National Energy Networks) and approved by the Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE), through the approval of an autonomous authorization so that it can be implemented "as quickly as possible."

Furthermore, the plan includes the launch of an auction for storage batteries by 2026, as well as support worth 25 million euros to improve the responsiveness of critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, by equipping them with photovoltaic panels and batteries, for example.

"Of course, we could increase the measures we're implementing here, but we would pay more. It's always a balancing act, [...] we believe these measures are sufficient to increase the grid's operational security without significantly impacting Portuguese consumers' tariffs," the minister emphasized.

At the end of June, the Minister of Environment and Energy announced that she would present a set of measures in response to the April blackout, although the final report detailing the causes of the event was not yet available.

Maria da Graça Carvalho indicated at the time that the government intends to increase electricity storage capacity and is therefore working on a "national storage plan," which, she added, could include both chemical storage, through batteries, and hydroelectric storage, through the capacity of dams.

Another measure to be presented involves changes to the grid's control systems, with greater computerization and data utilization, creating "a single data collection system."

Conclusions

Earlier this week, the conclusions of the July 15 meeting of the European Network of Transmission Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) expert panel investigating the grid collapse were released. They identified a cascading voltage surge—observed in southern Spain in the final phase of the incident—followed by sudden production shutdowns, particularly at renewable energy facilities, as the most likely cause. This caused the Iberian Peninsula to become electrically disconnected from the mainland, resulting in a loss of synchronization and a collapse in frequency and voltage.

This type of disruption had never before been identified as the cause of a blackout anywhere on the European grid.

During the incident, automatic response plans were activated in Portugal and Spain, as required by European regulations, but were unable to prevent the grid collapse.

Although the legal deadline for producing the factual report on the incident is October 28, 2025, six months after the incident, the expert panel intends to submit it sooner.

This will be followed by a final report, with recommendations to the European Commission and Member States, which should be delivered two to three months later.