REN partially reinstates electricity imports from Spain

Portugal’s power grid network management company REN has partially lifted a suspension on electricity imports from neighboring Spain, known to be the origin if the not the root cause of a blackout in power that affected both countries and parts of France on April 28.

From tomorrow and Friday, Portugal will receive almost a third of the energy that it had been getting from Spain on the day of the power cut.

“Following the blackout situation on April 28, 2025 to the National Electric System and the consequent stabilisation process underway, REN informs that the interlinked capacity between Portugal and Spain will be limited in terms of imports to 1000 MW for the period between 8-12 May” says a communiqué from REN.

REN, which operates the electricity network in Portugal, had cut power supplies from Spain from the day of the blackout that left the country without power for 10 hours or more in some regions.

The cut between Spain and Portugal has resulted in higher electricity prices than those practiced in the neighbouring country. On Wednesday, May 7, the Portuguese hub of the Iberian market (MIBEL) charged an average price of €49.19 per MW/h while in Spain it stood at €19.01 per MW/h.

The exact cause of the power outage is still not entirely understood although investigations in both countries and at an EU level are still ongoing.

However, in Spain, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez says that the government will “get to the bottom” to discover what had happened and adopt measures to ensure such an event doesn’t happen again.

Pedro Sánchez said they would need to analyse 756 million pieces of data supplied by electric system operators.

“It is a process that will take time” he told MPs in the Spanish parliament without giving details as to a timeframe to complete the investigation.