Portugal‘s government has acquired a 13.7% stake in REN — Redes Energéticas Nacionais, the country’s grid operator, to safeguard its national energy security.
The government’s move, which marks the return of direct state participation in the energy grid operator, comes as renewables continue to expand in Portugal, however gas-fired power plants are expected to remain an important backup in the medium term, according to GlobalData.
Power market trendsel
As GlobalData noted in a recent report, Portugal Power Market Trends and Analysis by Capacity, Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Regulations, Key Players and Forecast to 2035, the country’s electricity demand is expected to rise from 53TWh in 2025 to around 57.3TWh by 2030, boosted by expansion in solar, wind and hydropower capacity.
However, this expansion is putting pressure on the national grid. As of mid-2025, around 30GVA of generation projects were waiting for transmission-grid connections, while a further 9GVA had received access but had not yet come online.
“Portugal is pushing renewables hard in its best solar and wind zones, but without significant investment in storage, grid interconnection, and flexible dispatchable capacity, clean-energy growth may come with reliability trade-offs,” commented Attaurrahman Ojindaram Saibasan, power analyst at GlobalData.
In areas such as the Algarve, where summer tourism creates demand peaks, current load patterns have the potential to overwhelm the grid, a process that isn’t helped by ‘slow and complicated’ project permitting.
As a result, GlobalData noted that gas-fired plants will ‘remain essential’ for firming up the country’s energy portfolio, as the transition to renewables accelerates – however, in the long term, their utilisation is expected to decline.
Energy flexibility
GlobalData pointed to the development of hybrid renewable projects, combining solar, storage and wind – such as the Cavaleira project in Estremoz – as well as the European Grids Package, adopted in December 2025, as factors that will bolster the country’s energy flexibility.
“Portugal should look at accelerating grid modernisation, streamlining connection processes, implementing capacity remuneration mechanisms, incentivising storage, and expanding hydropower and pumped storage modernisation,” Saibasan added.
“If executed, Portugal could deliver over 70% of its electricity from renewables by 2035, while relying on gas only during peak stress and maintaining reliability.” Read more here.
