Leiria Power Dispute: 218 Still Without Electricity?

The Portugal national energy distributor E-Redes has announced a full restoration of electricity to storm-battered Leiria, but the Leiria Municipal Council is disputing those figures, citing internal reports that place 218 meters still without power as of 26 February 2026. The discrepancy has deepened a month-long standoff between local authorities and the energy giant over prolonged outages affecting hundreds of thousands of residents since late January 2026.

More than three weeks after devastating storms knocked out power to hundreds of thousands in Leiria, a dispute has erupted over whether electricity has truly been restored to all residents—and who will pay for the damage.

Why This Matters:

• Conflicting data: E-Redes CEO claims 100% restoration; Leiria Mayor reports 218 connections remain dead.

• Compensation claims: Families, farms, and businesses demand financial redress; regulator ERSE under pressure to act.

• Telecoms still crippled: 6,000 residents on one network alone lack mobile coverage; landlines down across swathes of the municipality.

What This Means for Residents

For those still without power, the consequences are severe. The outages have forced families to discard spoiled food, disrupted remote work and schooling, and left vulnerable residents — including the elderly in care homes — in dangerous conditions. Local businesses report losses running into the thousands of euros per day, with agricultural producers particularly hard hit by the inability to operate irrigation systems and refrigeration.

E-Redes is obliged by regulation to compensate customers who experience outages exceeding the individual continuity standard. Compensation is automatic and credited to the next bill without the need for a claim. For electrical damage requiring repair, the maximum indemnity corresponds to the proven cost of the fix. Residents can check their next bill for the automatic credit, or file complaints directly with ERSE if compensation doesn't appear. ERSE, the Portugal Energy Services Regulatory Entity, is the independent body that oversees energy companies and enforces service standards.

However, the Leiria Council and all 20 parish councils in the municipality are demanding that E-Redes go further, providing redress for economic and personal losses incurred over the prolonged blackout.

The Dispute Over Power Restoration

Gonçalo Lopes, the Leiria Mayor, told reporters on 26 February that his office is receiving contradictory information from within the EDP Group, which owns E-Redes. "Within the EDP universe there are those who say everything has been restored, but information from the same group mentions 218 meters not energized," Lopes stated. The confusion comes hours after Miguel Stilwell d'Andrade, EDP's executive president, told financial analysts during a results call that the company had "recovered 100% of clients, with only a few specific situations to be resolved very soon."

The contradiction matters because Leiria was among the last municipalities to see power return after storms Kristin, Leonardo, and Marta ravaged Central Portugal in late January and early February 2026. At the peak on 29 January, 300,000 customers in Leiria were left in the dark. That figure fell to 110,000 by 2 February, but subsequent storms reversed progress, with Marta knocking out lines that had just been repaired. By 14 February, 20,000 people were still without electricity. The area accounts for the majority of the 6,000 kilometers of damaged grid and 5,800 toppled poles reported nationally.

Breakdown in Communication: Mayor and E-Redes Chief at Odds

Lopes revealed that he has not spoken with José Ferrari Careto, the president of E-Redes, for over a week. The two last met after Leiria realized it would be "one of the last municipalities" to see full restoration. The mayor had proposed a tactical plan to accelerate repairs, including better management of mobile generators, a "Northern Action Plan" for the worst-hit rural parishes, and a streamlined process for what he termed "unjust lines" — streets where the transformer is live but three or four homes at the end remain dark.

According to Lopes, Careto walked out of that meeting, leaving other E-Redes officials to continue discussions. The mayor declined to confirm whether he would pursue legal action, noting that the energy sector is regulated and that ERSE has the statutory authority to demand compensation, verify maintenance standards, and audit the company's response capacity. "If ERSE does its job, there is no need to litigate," he said.

The mayor has formally asked ERSE to "activate all means" to investigate what happened and protect client interests, arguing that when a company controls what amounts to "national sovereignty" — the electricity grid — regulatory oversight must be rigorous. He has also suggested that critical infrastructure of this nature should be subject to greater public control or even renationalization.

The Bigger Picture: €80M in Damage, 18 Dead

The three depressions killed 18 people nationwide, six of them in Leiria. The storms toppled an estimated 8M trees in Leiria alone, causing €500M in forestry losses and €6M in damage to the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria. E-Redes has pegged the total impact on electrical infrastructure at €80M. The state of calamity covering the 68 most affected municipalities ended on 15 February, but the consequences linger.

The Central, Lisbon & Tagus Valley, and Alentejo regions bore the brunt of the storms, which destroyed homes and businesses, flooded roads, and severed water, power, and communications links. In response, Leiria activated its Municipal Emergency and Civil Protection Plan and launched the "SOS Leiria" platform to coordinate aid. Authorities have also issued warnings about elevated wildfire risk due to the mass of downed timber.

Telecoms: A Parallel Crisis

Electricity is not the only utility still in crisis. Lopes confirmed on 25 February that landlines remain down for many residents and that mobile coverage across Leiria is severely degraded. "Yesterday I was told that just one operator had 6,000 people still without mobile network," he said.

MEO, Vodafone, NOS, and Digi have all been working to restore service since the storms. The operators issued over 5,000 emergency e-SIM cards allowing customers to roam on rival networks. As of 26 February 2026:

• MEO reports 94% fixed-line availability in the region, targeting 95% by 28 February, and 99.6% mobile population coverage.

• Vodafone reactivated mobile service in all 58 initially affected municipalities by 4 February, though coverage remains partial and unstable in some areas.

• NOS restored mobile coverage to all county seats, including Leiria, by 19 February.

All three operators have agreed to credit customers for days without service automatically on the next bill and have suspended disconnections for non-payment in calamity zones. However, the operators caution that while mobile networks may be provisionally restored within days, full fixed-line restoration could take until the end of the first half of 2026, and structural repairs may require 18 months.

ERSE's Role and Regulatory Enforcement

ERSE oversees service quality via its Quality of Service Regulation (RQS), last updated in Regulation 826/2023. The rules cover technical continuity — the reliability and characteristics of electricity supply — and commercial standards, including complaint handling. ERSE has the power to audit, fine, and compel compensation from distributors that fail to meet standards. In 2021, the regulator imposed €1.3M in fines across 37 enforcement actions, including one against E-Redes for failing to maintain functional independence.

In response to the Kristin emergency, ERSE introduced exceptional measures: it banned power disconnections for non-payment — initially for domestic customers, later extended to small businesses and large consumers in affected municipalities — and waived the contracted power charge for the duration of outages. The regulator has promised to review E-Redes' response, but has yet to announce findings or penalties.

Consumers dissatisfied with E-Redes can file complaints directly with ERSE, which has the authority to intervene and, if warranted, impose sanctions. The political opposition party Iniciativa Liberal (IL) has called for urgent hearings with the presidents of both E-Redes and ERSE to scrutinize the response timeline and accountability.

What Happens Next

E-Redes is expected to finalize the handful of outstanding connections in the coming days, though the mayor's count suggests the task may be larger than the company acknowledges. The Portugal Council of Ministers has yet to comment on the municipal-corporate standoff, but pressure is mounting on ERSE to deliver a transparent investigation and enforce compensatory measures.

For residents of Leiria, the priority is clear: power, connectivity, and answers. As Lopes put it, "When a service is entrusted with this level of responsibility — essentially our country's sovereignty and security — the regulatory authority has obligations to control prices, tariffs, maintenance, and to verify that adequate means are in place so the service is not compromised." Whether ERSE will deliver on that mandate remains to be seen.