France to present timetable for Iberia power links

France has invited the Portuguese and Spanish governments to a meeting in Paris on June 1 to present a timetable for electricity interconnections between France and the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal’s environment and energy minister Maria da Graça Carvalho told ECO. Stronger cross-border links are seen by Lisbon as key to connecting Iberia more fully to the wider European power market and improving system resilience after last year’s blackout.

In the interview, Maria da Graça Carvalho called the French initiative “a huge step” and said the fact that Paris is now proposing to align the timetable with Portugal, Spain and the European energy commissioner marks a change from the past, when Lisbon and Madrid were the ones pushing for progress. She said the projects are long-term, with a “five to six-year horizon”.

“I think this change had a lot to do with the fact that both Portugal and Spain framed the issue as a European one and involved the European Commission. We framed it as an internal market issue. From that point on, France – a country that champions the internal market and all its components – also wanted to play its part and not stand in the way of the internal market’s development”, the minister noted.

The minister said 10 of the 31 measures announced by the Portuguese government after the blackout are still under way, but that the aim is to complete them by the end of this year. The “absolute priority” is to ensure critical infrastructure has energy autonomy, with parliament recommending 72 hours of backup capacity, she added.

Maria da Graça Carvalho also said Portugal expects to launch measures linked to storage and system services soon, adding that recent European Commission changes to state-aid rules for energy and storage should help speed up the process. A €25 million programme for infrastructure resilience is being designed and the tender should open before the summer, she said.

Originally published at Eco.pt