COUNTRY PROFILES

PORTUGAL

select specific area Introduction Energy Policy Objectives Overview Security of Supply Competitiveness of the Energy Sector Environmental Protection Selected 2001 Indicators for Portugal Energy Portugal 2001-2010

Introduction

Economical and Socio-political

In recent years, the evolution of Portugal’s energy system has been particularly marked by a strong dependence on external supply and, consequently, by growing energy bills. Moreover, the GDP energy intensity is the highest among the European Union Member States and still growing, contrary to the tendency towards lower values in the majority of the other EU Member States and in the Union's average.
As a consequence, the level of greenhouse gas emissions, although not so high as in other countries, reflects, when indexed to the GDP, the lack of efficiency of the Portuguese energy system and the cascading impact of the prevailing use of fuels in the national energy mix.

It is well known that Portugal has no endogenous (fossil fuel) energy sources. Still, it seems possible to:

• use renewable energy sources to double the installed electrical generation capacity, thus fulfilling the defined target of 39% of power generation from renewables in the next ten to fifteen years;
• use solar thermal energy to meet a significant part of hot water needs, the prevailing consumption in the household sub-sector, but also important in the industrial sector;
• promote the use of daylighting, passive solar heating & cooling energy technologies and the concepts of bioclimatic architecture (which are also means of using endogenous energy sources with an impact on climate) to significantly reduce the needs of ‘commercial’ energy for providing indoor comfort.

In this way, Portugal shall take maximum benefits from the use of its own clean sources of primary energy, as allowed by technological progress and the new economic context of the energy sector, while always respecting environmental constraints at the same time.

Considering the possible growth of the available electrical capacity to 15000 MW, it is likely that, by 2010, nearly 50% of the said capacity may be secured by renewable energy sources. Clearly, however, such scenario on the energy supply side - or, to be more precise and accurate, on the electricity supply side - is far from solving Portugal’s energy problems. In fact, electricity will typically represent only 1/5 to 1/4 of available end-use energy, in spite of its well-established merits and intrinsic attributes.

Energy efficiency is another strand of the energy issue, encompassing the efficiency of energy systems, the offer and demand of end-use energy and, also, by giving credit to the ‘non-use’ by promoting the rational demand of useful energy.

ERSE (the Regulatory Agency for the Energy Sector) has been encouraging efficiency on the electricity supply side since 1997. ERSE makes sure that the consumer prices do not grow and seeks to oppose or offset the impact of costs associated with imported oil products, by stimulating increased efficiency in power generation/conversion, transmission and distribution.

It should be noted that the creation of a single electricity market in the EU, and especially in the Iberian Peninsula, is extremely important for increasing the energy efficiency of the electric system, as it will allow both the energy systems and the market choices to adapt to the most competitive solutions available at each moment.

In practice, however, the tools for promoting efficiency in the demand side have not been given sufficient support. There is an almost total lack of sustainable polices aimed at encouraging users to rationally use energy and endogenous energy sources. The positive social concern of enabling increasingly larger layers of the society to access higher standards of comfort and well-being, gradually led to the widespread acceptance of the use of commercial energy sources with particularly harmful impacts on the environment and the GDP energy intensity.

Demand-side efficiency means adequately assessing the energy requirements associated with every human activity and need. For example, it is a well-established fact that carrying people in public transport generates much lower energy and environmental costs - per person and per kilometre - than carrying them in privately-owned cars. Likewise, demand-side efficiency in the built environment allows for achieving more comfortable and healthier conditions, through the adequate design and construction of urban areas and buildings, thus significantly reducing the need for commercial energy sources.


By launching the E-4 (Energy Efficiency and Endogenous Energies) Programme, the Portuguese Government takes the initiative with a set of multiple, diversified measures aimed at promoting a consistent and integrated approach to energy supply and demand. By promoting energy efficiency and the use of endogenous energy sources, the programme seeks to upgrade the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy and to modernise the country’s social fabric, while simultaneously preserving the standards of living of future generations by reducing gas emissions, especially of the CO2 responsible for climatic change.

The actions contained in this Programme will be introduced in a gradual manner, depending on their content and opportunity to meet the established targets of doubling the availability of endogenous electrical capacity and electricity generation over the next ten to fifteen years and of reducing the GDP energy intensity as well. These actions also aim at exploiting the potentialities of the Iberian market as part of the European market for energy, improving the electrical load diagram management and making use of a wide array of energy efficiency opportunities, ranging from upstream actions such as land-use planning, urbanisation and city management, to downstream technology and process measures, thereby improving the quality of service and the price of electricity, natural gas and other fuels.

Relations with EU (Bilateral & Multilateral Agreements)