Energy. Minister advocates electrification to keep prices low

A minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, today defended that Portugal must continue to bet on electrification, stressing that the bet on renewable energy has protected the country from international price shocks.

During an intervention at the Bloomberg agency’s BNEF conference on energy, finance and technology, Maria da Graça Carvalho said that investment in renewable energy over the last 10 to 15 years has benefited from a “consistent and stable policy”.

“ There has been consistency and consistency over time and between political parties – our National Plan for Energy and Climate has been approved in parliament, in the Committee on Environment and Energy, unanimously, from the left to the right”, he said.

According to the newspaper Económico, the PNEC 2030 was approved with the favorable votes of the PSD, PS and Livre, but with the abstention of the Enough and absence of the other parties.

The minister added that this stability “is a very important factor in competitiveness”.

“ We are attracting investments because they know that they have accessible, clean and available energy, and it is very unlikely that politics will change,” he stressed.

The minister was interviewed in a panel entitled “The Energy Advantage of Portugal”, which highlighted the fact that renewable energy is around 80% of the production of electricity generated in the country.

However, in statements to Lusa outside the conference, Maria da Graça Carvalho acknowledged that Portugal should also be prepared for the impact of climate change, such as drought periods.

According to the governor, there are climate scenarios that point to a decrease in the amount of water in Portugal, but it has claimed that the solar potential remains and even tends to increase, like the wind.

“ We must be prepared for these extreme phenomena, phenomena that were not in the predictions. Anyway, in all scenarios we have a substantial amount of renewable energy to remain our main source of energy,” he added.

During the visit to the British capital, the minister met with the Undersecretary of State for Energy Security and British Carbonic Neutrality, Martin McCluskey, and discussed UK integration into the European electricity market.

“ I hope that at the European Union summit with the United Kingdom, which is now taking place on 20 November, it will be one of the conclusions. It will be very good for both”, he said.

Maria da Graça Carvalho pointed out that the United Kingdom faces additional complexity in the planning and implementation of energy policies due to the decentralisation of Scotland and Wales, and removed a possible short-term electricity interconnection between Portugal and the United Kingdom.

“ One of our first priorities is to lower the price of electricity or maintain the price of electricity. And so we have to be very careful with all the investments made in networks,” he explained, leaving open the possibility of the project being considered in the future, “in another international environment.”.