Ana Luísa Guimarães and Catarina Pinto Santos analyse the challenges posed by large-scale energy consumption hubs | Jornal de Negócios

Ana Luísa Guimarães and Catarina Pinto Santos highlight that the growth of data centres and artificial intelligence represents a new phase of digital industrialisation, creating significant challenges for the Portuguese electricity system.

Although Portugal currently has limited installed capacity, the expansion targets set for 2030 require energy planning capable of ensuring sustainability, security of supply and network efficiency.

The authors underline that international experience demonstrates the need for large energy consumers to contribute to their own sustainability, notably through models such as “Bring Your Own Power” (BYOP) and “Bring Your Own Clean Energy” (BYOCE), which link consumption to new renewable generation and energy storage capacity. They also note that the Portuguese regulatory framework continues to show shortcomings in the coordination of demand, renewable generation, storage and network planning.

According to their analysis, Portugal’s competitiveness in attracting data centre investment will depend on its ability to develop an integrated approach that promotes the geographical proximity of large-scale consumption, renewable energy generation and storage infrastructure, thereby minimising network reinforcement costs and reducing tariff impacts on consumers.

Finally, they emphasise the importance of the National Transmission Network Development and Investment Plan (PDIRT-E) in incorporating the new energy demand associated with industrial and digital hubs. They argue that only through planning based on actual demand will Portugal be able to consolidate its position as a digital hub and ensure the sustainable and resilient development of its energy infrastructure.

Ver noticia