Portugal invests in electricity grid upgrades after Iberian blackout
They include 137 million euros ($159 million dollars) of investments in the country's electricity grid, increasing the number of 'black start' power stations and reinforcing critical infrastructure such as hospitals with solar panels and batteries.
Environment and Energy Minister Maria Graça Carvalho said the plan would ensure that the Iberian nation of 10.6 million is better prepared for future emergencies.
'We will be in a better position to manage the crisis and minimize its consequences,' Carvalho said.
The Iberian outage started shortly after 11:30 a.m. in Portugal and 12:30 p.m. in Spain and lasted through nightfall, disrupting businesses, transit systems, cellular networks, Internet connectivity and other critical infrastructure.
In just five seconds, Spain lost 15 gigawatts of electricity — or about 60% of its supply. Portugal, whose grid is connected to Spain's, also went down. Only the countries' island territories were spared. Power was fully restored in both countries the next morning.
Spanish authorities in June said an investigation found that the country's electric grid was unable to handle a surge in voltage, which triggered small grid failures in the south of Spain that cascaded into larger ones. The chain reaction eventually brought down the electric system in the two Iberian nations.
Authorities didn't explain what caused the initial voltage surge.
Other measures under review include a possible interconnection between Portugal and Morocco. Interconnections are high voltage transmission lines that link the electricity systems of different countries, allowing cross-border power exchanges.
Spain's interconnections with Morocco and France were critical to restoring power after the April blackout.
Portuguese authorities said they would increase the number of power stations with autonomous restart capability from two to four. The black start power stations helped Portugal restore its power independently from Spain after the blackout.
Authorities said they would spend 25 million euros ($29 million) to reinforce back-up energy sources such as solar panels and batteries at hospitals and other critical infrastructure.
An independent panel of European Union experts is investigating what caused the blackout. A preliminary report published earlier this month reached similar conclusions to the Spanish investigation — that an unusual series of voltage surges in Spain and a cascading series of electricity disconnections likely triggered the event.
A final report is due in October.
___ Naishadham reported from Madrid.
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How Spain's wealth tax became an unexpected boon for Britain
Amancio Ortega, Spain's richest man, is not a household name on Teesside. But the billionaire entrepreneur, best known for founding Zara, now looms large over the area. The 89-year-old's €110bn (£95bn) family office, Pontegadea Inversiones, last week snapped up a 49pc stake in PD Ports, paying an undisclosed sum to Canadian investment giant Brookfield for the shares. PD operates major ports at Tees and Hartlepool. The Spaniard already has a property portfolio in Britain worth £2.5bn, but until now he has mostly stuck to hotels, shops and offices. The PD Ports deal is his first major British foray into infrastructure and logistics. Ortega's family office insists the investment is simply about good business. But observers note that the push into ports could have an advantageous side effect: lowering the billionaire's wealth tax bill. 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However, it is not just a paper fortune: he also regularly receives billions in dividends, a form of income, from his empire. This year, his dividend bonanza will top €3bn for the first time thanks to his stake in Inditex, which is held via two of Pontegadea's three subsidiary companies. He tends to reinvest almost all of this in buying properties and companies. Most of Ortega's British investments are in scope of Spain's wealth tax. However, the rules say that if a rich Spaniard has a stake worth more than 5pc in a productive or trading business (which does not include real estate), that won't count towards his or her taxable wealth. PD Ports is exactly this kind of investment. Sources close to Pontegadea say most of the family office's assets would still get caught in the wealth tax net. They say it is standard practice to redeploy the dividends and other income into economically productive assets. Still, Pontegadea has been visibly broadening its portfolio away from purely property in recent years, taking the kind of 5pc-plus stakes in energy and infrastructure companies that, if structured in certain ways, could qualify for that wealth tax exemption. Sources said some of these investments might qualify the exemption and lower the wealth tax liability. But they said this was not the motivation for the choice of assets, nor the timing of deals. Ortega's strategic shift has mostly been aimed at energy. In 2023, the year after a reform that tightened the wealth tax net, Pontegadea pumped a reported €693m into energy projects, more than twice the amount of the year before. In the past five years his family office has acquired 5pc stakes in both electricity major Redeia and gas grid operator Enagas. Among its dozen-plus energy investments, it also owns 12pc of Portuguese electricity and gas system operator Ren, and has stakes in several solar and wind farms in Spain and France. 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Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, has called for a 2pc tax on assets over £10m and the party's union backers have also spoken out in favour of the idea. Anneliese Dodds, a former shadow chancellor, last week also urged Sir Keir Starmer and Reeves to look at 'how it would be possible' to impose a levy on the assets of the richest Britons. On Friday, Dame Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said on Friday it was important 'all these issues are looked at and discussed and we look at the evidence about what will work and what won't work'. Despite the growing calls, senior ministers have downplayed talks of a wealth tax amid concerns it would hasten the stampede of wealthy leaving Britain after the abolition of non-dom status. Depending on the structure of any regime, it could also put off investors like Ortega. The businessman is a little-known but significant presence in the British property sector. His flagship is the imposing neoclassical Adelphi building on Victoria Embankment in central London, which he bought for a reported €680m. Pontegadea's other London assets include the 1920s commercial edifice Devonshire House, opposite the Ritz on Piccadilly; the roof-gardened Post Building in Bloomsbury; and a former BBC office near Oxford Circus. In Companies House filings, Pontegadea valued its British portfolio at £2.4bn in March 2024, yielding rental income of £98m. His worldwide real estate empire, worth a reported €20bn, spans Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Britain, Canada and the United States. Ortega is a landlord to the likes of Amazon, Walmart and Primark. Although Pontegadea denies the wealth tax has played the driving role in Ortega's shift from pure property into energy and infrastructure, advisers say the tax figures are large in the financial planning of even moderately wealthy Spanish residents. 'If you have investment income, then by using the right structures you can squeeze down your taxable income, and you can reduce your wealth tax liability,' McCann says. 'It is possible to live here and pay a more reasonable level of tax just by good planning.' Whatever the motivation behind Ortega's PD Ports play, you can be sure he has plenty of good financial planning.
