Seixal Battles E-Redes Over Nightly Blackouts, Demands Grid Overhaul

Sudden power cuts keep returning to Seixal, and the municipality has decided it has had enough. The local council is moving against E-Redes, Portugal’s main distribution company, after weeks of night-time blackouts that have stalled shops, refrigerated medicines and left thousands of homes repeatedly in the dark. While the legal complaint winds its way to the regulator, residents are asking whether the national grid is really ready for the country’s expanding suburbs.

Fast facts at a glance

• Repeated outages hit four freguesias: Fernão Ferro, Amora, Corroios and Arrentela.

• Formal complaint lodged with ERSE, the national energy regulator.

• Urgent 7 January meeting scheduled between the council and E-Redes.

• Town hall organising legal aid for affected families and local businesses.

• Utility plans €1.6 B in national grid upgrades between 2026-2030, but has yet to spell out specific deadlines for Seixal.

Power cuts trigger legal showdown

The Seixal council says the sequence of outages—some lasting minutes, others stretching close to an hour—breach the "continuity of service" rules laid down by ERSE. Mayor Paulo Silva has accused the distributor of "persistent failure" to guarantee a basic public service. The formal filing could pave the way for fines or even compensation if the regulator agrees the incidents surpass acceptable limits. Council lawyers underline that the move is not purely symbolic; it asks the watchdog to launch a full compliance audit, publish findings and impose corrective measures.

Why Fernão Ferro keeps going dark

Specialists who analysed voltage logs point to a cluster of problems in Pinhal do General, a fast-growing settlement designated an AUGI—an area developed outside standard planning rules. Here, demand is believed to have outstripped low-tension feeder capacity, triggering relay trips whenever heaters, ovens and electric vehicle chargers all spike at once. At the same time, aging transformers, originally sized for a fraction of today’s population, no longer provide the stability margin operators need. Winter cold snaps, which send household heating loads soaring, have only made the weak spots more evident.

What Seixal town hall wants

City hall’s three-point demand list focuses on clarity, speed and accountability:

Detailed root-cause reports for every recorded outage since December.

An immediate mitigation plan that prevents further unscheduled interruptions.

A calendar—with milestones and funding sources—for reinforcement works, particularly the installation of a new substation in Fernão Ferro.

Officials also want E-Redes to set up a dedicated hotline so residents receive real-time alerts rather than learning about maintenance only after the lights go out.

E-Redes on the defensive

Facing criticism, the distributor has pointed to its broader €430 M investment envelope for 2025 and a follow-up €1.6 B programme through 2030. Roughly 20 % of that national budget is earmarked for "network reliability", yet company engineers concede that financial approval "does not instantly translate into shovels in the ground". They emphasise the need for permits, land acquisition and, in the case of AUGI neighbourhoods, regularisation of plot boundaries before heavy infrastructure can be laid. Until then, temporary mobile transformers and load-balancing software are being deployed as stop-gaps.

What consumers can do

Energy-law specialists remind residents that Portuguese regulations allow for refunds when outages exceed specific duration and frequency thresholds. Impacted households should keep meter photos, note start and end times of each cut and file claims within 30 days. The Seixal council is partnering with the local chapter of the Bar Association to offer free legal clinics, aiming to pool small claims and increase negotiating power if the situation drags on.

Broader picture: Portugal’s grid under strain

Urban planners note that Lisbon’s southern suburbs have expanded by tens of thousands of inhabitants over the past decade, many settling in formerly rural pockets without matching upgrades to distribution lines. Nationwide, electrification of transport and heating is adding twin pressures: more peak-hour demand and greater power-quality sensitivity for digital devices. The Seixal saga, analysts warn, could foreshadow similar disputes in other municipalities unless grid-reinforcement timetables accelerate.

Looking ahead

All eyes now turn to next week’s closed-door meeting between Seixal and E-Redes. If a concrete schedule and funding commitments emerge, residents could see the end of the rolling blackouts before the next winter season. If not, the regulator’s inquiry may set a precedent for how Portuguese authorities handle persistent service lapses in the age of electrification. For now, Seixal’s message to the utility is unambiguous: keep the lights on, or expect a legal bill that does not flicker.