Portugal wants to strengthen interconnections with Europe and Morocco

While Portugal was a collateral victim of the blackout that hit Spain on 28 August, the country is lobbying hard for stronger interconnections between France and the Iberian Peninsula to boost its own security of supply. Cross-border trade accounts for just 3% of electricity consumption on the Iberian Peninsula, compared with the European Commission's target of 15%. A new link between France and Spain is currently under construction, which should increase interconnection capacity between France and Spain to 5 GW. Portugal is also studying the construction of an interconnector with Morocco, following the abandonment of the project for an interconnector between Morocco and the United Kingdom. The cost of an undersea interconnector between the two countries is estimated at around one billion euros.