Renewable production continues to grow, electrification is creating new consumption needs and consumers themselves are beginning to assume a different role in the energy system. But this transformation brings with it a requirement that covered practically all interventions at the fifth edition of the Energy and Territory Meeting. It is necessary to prepare networks, territories and the way in which energy is used for a reality that is much more complex than that for which the electrical system was originally designed.
Held at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra, the meeting organized by E-REDES in partnership with RNAE addressed the resilience of territories in the face of increasingly extreme phenomena and the integration of renewable production that requires bringing production, consumption, storage and networks closer together than ever before.
José Ferrari Careto, president of E-REDES, recalled that the company manages around 240 thousand kilometers of network at three voltage levels, distributed across the 278 municipalities on the continent. A dimension that gains new demands as the economy becomes electrified. The answer involves an investment program of three billion euros between 2026 and 2030, of which more than 500 million will be invested this year.
“We have to translate these euros into works on the ground”, stated José Ferrari Careto, pointing out as an objective a network that is “more resilient, a more modern network and a network that is up to the challenges we have associated with the energy transition”. The official also drew attention to the growing importance of electricity in an economy in which it has long ceased to be used only for lighting and has started to support activities ranging from the Internet to electric mobility.
Recent events have given a concrete dimension to this dependence. Ana Abrunhosa, president of Coimbra City Council, recalled the effects of the extreme episodes experienced in the region to argue that resilience can no longer be seen as an occasional concern. “What were extreme events are beginning to be repeated events”, he warned, arguing that municipalities must be prepared for consequences that quickly go beyond the energy sector.
When electricity fails, he explained, the problem can affect water and other essential services. “Citizens are still not aware of this. In other words, realizing that today we depend on it (energy) for everything”, stated Ana Abrunhosa. The mayor also identified a deficiency that she considers particularly relevant to the resilience of the territories: “Our energy storage capacity is still clearly insufficient.”
When the transition comes to cities
It is in the territory that many of these decisions stop being concepts and start to translate into buildings, lighting, mobility or energy communities. Luís Francisco Filipe, councilor at Coimbra City Council responsible for Environment, Climate, Energy and Sustainability, defended an approach based on three dimensions: economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusion. “How is the energy transition actually an opportunity for local development, how can municipalities see the energy transition not as a threat, but as an opportunity to, in essence, bring more wealth and more social inclusion to the territory”, he summarized.
Coimbra is already testing this transformation on several fronts. The municipality is in the final stages of replacing traditional lighting with more than 23 thousand LED luminaires, is installing solar production in municipal equipment and social neighborhoods and is preparing solutions for collective self-consumption. At Quinta das Bicas, where there are 268 apartments, the objective is to combine insulation, heat pumps and other solutions that reduce the energy bill of more vulnerable households.
But not all ambitions are yet able to advance at the desired speed. Luís Francisco Filipe pointed out difficulties in creating renewable energy communities and connecting to the grid, in addition to defending greater continuity in financing. “We feel that the regulatory framework is not yet robust to the point of having practical solutions to improve.”
The prevention of climate risks was another point of the meeting. Pedro Baptista, responsible for the Climate Adaptation and Financing Unit at the Climate Agency, recalled that Portugal, due to its location in southern Europe, is particularly exposed to climate change and that this vulnerability also directly affects the energy sector. Water shortages, heat waves, fires and storms affect production and networks while changing consumption patterns themselves.
One of the challenges lies precisely in gathering information that is currently dispersed and transforming it into effective decision support. “We have to create a common database here that serves the various stakeholders“, stated Pedro Baptista. The Climate Agency intends to develop a risk management platform that aggregates already available information and helps integrate climate risks into territorial planning and ordering.
Engineering is responsible for transforming these objectives into solutions that can be implemented. Isabel Peça, president of the Board of Directors of the Central Region of the Order of Engineers, highlighted the need for technical qualifications, continuous training and coordination between specialties. “The engineer does not leave school with a degree, he leaves school with the path open to continue training throughout his life”, he stated, remembering that technological evolution requires a permanent update of skills.
The experience of the storms that hit the Central region also showed the importance of this response capacity. Isabel Peça recalled the creation of a pool of volunteers by professional orders and the development of a platform that made it possible to standardize assessments on the ground, georeference situations and quantify damages, seeking to overcome limitations in technical capacity existing in public administration.
Producing more is no longer enough
The rapid expansion of renewables brings a “problem”: producing electricity is just one part of the equation. It is necessary to be able to transport it, store it and adjust consumption to the times when it is available. José Roque, responsible for the Energy and Resources sector at EY Portugal, addressed the need to “produce all the green electrons we want, but (if) we don’t have a transport network and a distribution network prepared to take them to where they are consumed or stored and consumed, it’s of no use to us”.
The pressure is far from being exclusively Portuguese. José Roque pointed to the need for 584 billion euros of investment in European networks by 2030 and around 1,700 gigawatts of renewable projects waiting to be connected in Europe. In this context, access to the network is becoming, in his words, a “very valuable asset”.
Portugal, for its part, already obtains close to 70% of its consumption from renewable sources, explained João Faria Conceição, member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of REN. In two decades, installed renewable capacity tripled and the country now has around 45 thousand producers, in a change that also transforms the profile of the consumer, who is no longer limited to receiving energy to being able to also produce it.
The problem is that this production is not necessarily available when consumption demands it. This is why João Faria Conceição considers demand management an “absolutely critical” instrument, although he recognizes that the participation of agents in existing mechanisms remains below expectations. “It is not enough to say that we need to have a market that is open to everyone because this market already exists, but apparently it is not yet of interest or has not yet captured everyone’s attention.”
Pedro Moura, professor at the University of Coimbra, took the discussion to the consumer. Electric vehicles, air conditioning, water heating or batteries can become resources capable of shifting consumption to times of greater renewable production. But that flexibility belongs to millions of users with their own needs, which requires automation, data, adequate markets and sufficiently clear incentives. “Flexibility exists in technical terms at the level of equipment; here the challenge is to make it accessible, aggregated and valued by the system”, stated Pedro Moura. To achieve this, he added, it will be essential to ensure “simplicity, transparency and trust and clear benefits” for consumers who make this capacity available to the network.
It was this need to connect the various levels of the transition that Carlos Santos, president of RNAE, recalled at the end. Energy agencies currently cover around 70% of the national territory and have approximately a hundred technicians, working directly with municipalities and citizens. “There is no single entity that can solve the problem, we have to connect”, stated Carlos Santos, leaving a challenge for the future: extending this network to the remaining 30% of the territory that does not yet have an energy agency.
See the best moments from the event:
