E-Redes Trims Outages to 11,000, but Leiria Still in the Dark

The Portugal distribution company E-Redes has driven the nationwide tally of power outages down to roughly 11,000 customers, a milestone that finally puts an end in sight to the blackouts triggered three weeks ago by Storm Kristin.

Why This Matters

• Leiria still hardest hit – 7 of every 10 remaining outages are concentrated in the district where Kristin made landfall.

• Free hotline 800 506 506 – E-Redes asks anyone who spots fallen lines to ring this number or use balcaodigital.e-redes.pt.

• Temporary generators stay on – More than 400 mobile units will continue supplying schools, health centres and small industries until permanent repairs finish.

• Tariff impact pushed to 2030 – Costs of rebuilding the grid will only start surfacing in electricity bills after the next regulatory cycle.

From Blackout to Recovery

When winds above 140 km/h swept across central Portugal on 28 January, they shredded over 6,300 km of overhead cable, toppled about 5,800 poles and disabled 24 substations. At dawn the following morning, nearly 1 million connections—close to one-quarter of the mainland network—went dark.

Field crews, including reinforcements from Spain, France and Ireland, have worked around the clock ever since. Helicopters and drones mapped broken lines in pine forests near Leiria; amphibious tractors ploughed through flooded farmland in Santarém. The daily outage graph published by E-Redes shows a staircase pattern: 159,000 homes without power on 1 February, 35,000 on 10 February, and 11,000 this Monday morning.

Why Leiria Still Lags

Three factors explain the stubborn numbers north of the Serra de Aire e Candeeiros:

Dense woodland corridors: Thousands of poles are located in forestry tracks rendered impassable by uprooted pines.

High-voltage backbone damage: Eight very-high-tension towers—managed by REN but feeding E-Redes substations—snapped, delaying local repairs.

Safety clearances: Each restored feeder must be test-energised, patrolled and certified before homes can reconnect, adding hours to every kilometre.

To keep basic services running, 30 local generators were installed in the first 48 hours; by now more than 200 are scattered across the district. The Portugal Civil Protection Authority maintains that hospitals and water-supply stations have had uninterrupted backup since 29 January.

Long Road to a Tougher Grid

Storm Kristin did more than topple poles; it reignited a decades-old debate about how exposed Portugal’s electricity lines are to extreme weather. Around 80 % of the distribution network is still overhead, compared with a European average near 55 %.

The Ministry for Environment & Energy is pressuring operators to bury more medium-voltage lines and automate switching. E-Redes’ draft 2026-2030 investment plan earmarks funds for:

• Smart meters and sectionalising switches that isolate faults within seconds.

• Six additional mobile substations for future emergencies.

• Pilot underground corridors in fire-prone districts such as Castelo Branco.

Sector analysts warn, however, that the price tag—estimated in the low hundreds of millions of euros—could nudge retail tariffs higher. Regulator ERSE says any rise would be phased in “no earlier than 2030” to avoid burdening households already grappling with mortgage and rent inflation.

What This Means for Residents

• Check service status online: The outage map on e-redes.pt is updated every 15 minutes; you can also register for SMS alerts.• Generator etiquette: If you are running a private generator, disconnect the main breaker to avoid feeding current back into the grid—a legal requirement under Decree-Law 517/2019.• Insurance claims: Household policies typically cover food spoiled during outages longer than 48 hours; keep receipts and the utility’s fault reference number.• Future bills: Expect a modest network-maintenance surcharge late in the decade. ERSE hints at an increase “equivalent to a few euro cents per month” for a standard 3.45 kVA contract.

Expert Voices

Pedro Carvalho, power-systems lecturer at Instituto Superior Técnico, calls Kristin’s footprint “a brutal stress test” and argues for a “cultural shift from repair to prevention.” Meanwhile, climate physicist Carlos da Câmara highlights the urgency of embedding weather-radar data into grid automation so that circuits can be proactively reconfigured before wind peaks.

Both experts agree that burying every line is neither affordable nor necessary; instead, they advocate a mix of strategic undergrounding, micro-grids for rural clusters and faster deployment of energy storage to ride out storm-driven interruptions.

Looking Ahead

By late tonight, E-Redes expects to cut the outage count below 8,000. Full normality in Leiria may still take “several more days,” the company concedes, because crews must rebuild—not just patch—sections of high-voltage backbone. Residents should brace for intermittent drops in voltage as circuits are re-energised and balanced.

For now, the sight of streetlights flickering back on from Alcobaça to Tomar signals a cautious return to normal life—and offers a timely reminder that as storms grow stronger, so must Portugal’s energy infrastructure.