The Portuguese Energy Minister: “France has no interest in accelerating our interconnections for its nuclear energy” | Economy | EUROtoday

Maria Da Graça Carvalho (Beja, 70 years) has confronted the worst vitality emergency lived in Portugal in many years, though the disaster was exceeded in simply over 10 hours. The Minister of Environment and Energy spent the morning on Tuesday, whereas the nation was normalized. He is Professor of Energy and Climate Alterations of the University of Lisbon and, as Eurodiputada, participated within the Report on the Design of the European Electric Market and the Regulation of Protection in opposition to the Manipulation of the Wholesale Mercado de Energy. He believes that it’s not time to judge monetary compensation requests to Spain whereas the origin of the blackout is unknown, however it’s coming to indicate extra firmness in opposition to France to finish the Iberian Energy Island. The interview was performed on Friday at his workplace in Lisbon.

Ask. Is the Portuguese authorities happy with the data you might be receiving from Spain?

Answer. We have fixed contact because it occurred. Today I’ve had a gathering with the Spanish minister. There is contact and cooperation between the ministers and between the Secretaries of State. We are proud of that collaboration, which incorporates the trade of technical information of REN and Ree.

P. Is there any advance to make clear what occurred?

R. Not but. We know what are the primary facilities that had been disconnected and the realm, however we do not even have the knowledge that the issue has arisen there. We have to attend for information evaluation. The Portuguese authorities requested Europe and we wish it to be as unbiased as potential. We know that community operators have technical data and information, however we wish the European Agency for Independent Regulators and consultants to take part.

P. Did mistrust the pursuits of the system operators?

R. No no. There is a European mechanism to forestall regulators of affected nations from being a part of the report, however this has been an revolutionary incident, in dangerous sense, and it’s handy that there are eyes of technicians who should not concerned to investigate and assist us perceive.

P. Portugal closed the electrical energy imports of Spain ten days. Why was this resolution made?

R. By warning and to see the way it advanced. In these days there was no anomaly on the community and that’s the reason on Thursday we started to import vitality from Spain. It just isn’t but complete, it is going to be executed in phases. We have requested REN to carry out a gradual plan till normalization. I hope it’s transient, however this reveals the significance of being related. We had been already conscious that the value of electrical energy within the wholesale market with disconnection was going to rise. It was a precaution that had a price, but when we related prematurely and one thing occurred, we might have one other incident. We had been cautious.

P. Would the blackout have been much less critical if the Iberian Peninsula had extra interconnections with France?

R. Certainly. The restoration would have been quicker. We, when reducing the reference to Spain, had been with out another. We have two centrals with black begin [inicio autónomo] that had some issue in restarting the system. It took three hours and one other, 4. Then it was streamlined once we achieved Spain with the International Duero and achieved three islands. To restart, Spain used among the reference to Morocco and particularly that of France, which is little.

P. Why do not Spain and Portugal obtain that France will increase interconnections? And why Brussels fails to impose its aims to succeed in 15%?

R. They are at 3%. It is a combat of all governments for years for interconnections to extend. This declare is all the time current within the Iberian summits. I believe France doesn’t have a lot curiosity as a result of it has a whole lot of nuclear vitality and doesn’t speed up our interconnections. The two governments are going to renew this difficulty with extra pressure with the European Commission. This just isn’t a bilateral or trilateral difficulty, it’s a European difficulty. We are dealing with boundaries to the home market, which is the pillar of European building, and France, not supporting the velocity with which we supposed to construct these interconnections, it’s inserting boundaries to the home market. We will ask for assist from the fee and request a gathering with France. This incident demonstrates the significance of interconnections for Europe. Now it could have been helpful for us, however it may be in the other way, as occurred throughout the Russian gasoline disaster. The Iberian Peninsula had seven ports of liquefied pure gasoline and nice renewable electrical energy potential, due to this fact it’s a supply of safety for the availability of Europe, however we can’t ship it as a result of we have now a really weak connection.

P. Does the boundaries of France should do with environmental motifs, however with competitors with their nuclear?

R. There are environmental issues, however there are all the time options to mitigate them. Now we’re constructing a excessive voltage line between Portugal and Spain and we have now needed to reorient it, along with compensating the populations, however we have now discovered options as a result of we’re occupied with strengthening that connection. Therefore, environmental issues will be solved with decrease influence designs, however it’s essential to be motivated to seek out options and I don’t see that motivation on the aspect of France as a result of objectively they don’t have a lot curiosity. They may have all of the curiosity within the case of an vitality disaster. The extra related the market is, the better provide safety we may have and the extra means to withstand challenges earlier than any worldwide disaster.

P. Is Portugal to ask for financial compensation from Spain for the damages of the blackout?

R. At this time, our primary goal is to grasp. As lengthy as we don’t perceive what occurred, we won’t tackle that difficulty. At the identical time we work to forestall incidents of this nature and if it happens, as a result of it can’t be assured that it doesn’t occur, what measures can we take in order that the restoration is quicker. We take about ten hours to get well and we have now been congratulated for that. Taking under consideration gravity, it was a reasonably affordable restoration, however nonetheless, we have now to see get well quicker. We have a gaggle of unbiased specialists to plan and look to the long run: keep away from a blackout, get well higher and plan our system in order that it’s higher ready for such an occasion. Although our community meets all European guidelines, however we live an vitality transition with the rise of renewables and decentralization and all the things needs to be nicely studied.

P. Portugal and Spain at the moment are two of the European nations with extra renewable electrical energy. Did it run an excessive amount of and that has been in a position to introduce extra instability within the system?

R. What occurred is unbiased of know-how. We not have coal centrals, it’s an irreversible resolution. Spain has nuclear and didn’t keep away from the blackout. Now, it’s higher to have a steadiness between intermittent vitality sources and steady sources. Fortunately, we have now a whole lot of water and 6 mixed cycle pure gasoline teams. We additionally want extra storage and, fortunately, we have now many hydroelectric crops that may pump. Now we have now made a PRR to develop batteries for {the electrical} system. We are making our system extra resilient and secure. We will see the conclusions concerning the blackout, however the debate on applied sciences just isn’t the one which issues presently.