Portugal to use REN stake to influence from within

Portugal’s government will use its newly confirmed 13.7% stake in REN to increase its ability to influence the company “from within”, Environment and Energy Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho said on Wednesday, framing the move as a matter of sovereignty and national security in a sector seen as strategic for the country.

Speaking in parliament hours after the state confirmed the purchase, Carvalho said electricity and gas networks, gas storage and the refinery are strategic assets for the government. She said the main reason for taking a stake in REN, which manages Portugal’s electricity and gas networks, was “sovereignty, public interest and national security”.

While saying she had so far seen no problems arising from the Chinese state’s shareholding in REN and that the working relationship had been good, the minister said recent geopolitical changes meant Portugal could not ignore who holds positions in strategic assets. She added that Portugal had until now been an exception in Europe by not holding a stake in the capital of its grid operator.

On whether the move could help lower electricity prices, Carvalho said the government’s logic was that cheaper power requires a higher share of renewables in the energy mix, which in turn depends on faster investment, and that the REN stake gives the state another tool to influence key decisions. In the same hearing, she said she expects the model for the tender of the low-voltage electricity networks, currently concessioned to E-Redes, to be defined by the end of this year.

Originally published at Eco.pt