The struggle to attract the industry data centersintensive like few others in electrical energy, does not stop. Portugal, which shares a system with Spain, has its own plans and to carry them out it proposes a reform that in Spain is nothing more than a recommendation: separate the electricity system operator from the transportation business.
The issue has entered the agenda of the Portuguese Executive just after the return of the State to the capital of Energy Networks Nacionais (REN), manager of the electricity and gas networks of the neighboring country.
The Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, has confirmed that Lisbon is studying taking as a reference the british reform which separated these functions and created an independent operator to decide on the operation and future evolution of the system.
There is still no decision or legislative project. But there is an express desire to analyze the model. Carvalho explained that the Government wants to discuss with REN and its shareholders the possibility of transferring the global management and energy planning functions outside the company.
The minister has also been directly interested in the British experience and has met with the United Kingdom ambassador in Portugal to learn about the results of a reform that London completed in 2024.
The move comes at an especially significant time for REN. The Portuguese State has agreed acquire Pontegadeathe investment vehicle Amancio Ortega, 13.7% of the companythrough the transfer of 91.7 million shares to the public company Parpública.
The agreement appears among REN’s communications to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission and places the State as second reference shareholderonly behind State Grid, which maintains 25%.
The operation represents the return of the State to the shareholding of REN after more than a decade away from the company. Its cost has been around 325 million euros according to the stock market valuation managed for the participation, although the financial amount of the transaction was not made public.
Lisbon’s commitment has a strategic justification: guaranteeing the capacity to influence a critical infrastructure in full transformation of the energy system.
But the entry into capital now opens a deeper question. If what interests the State is to have the capacity to decide on the security of supplynetwork planning and the evolution of the electrical system, should it be done by REN shareholders or through a independent company structure who owns and operates those networks?
The British model
The precedent is in the United Kingdom. On October 1, 2024, the National Energy System Operator, NESO, began operating after the British government acquires National Grid its electricity system operator business and transfer it to public ownership.
NESO assumed not only real-time operation, but also strategic planning functions of the electricity and gas networks. National Grid retained ownership and management of the transmission networks.
The difference is not merely societal. ANDl operator determines how the system should work, what needs it presentsOh, what evolution it must have to guarantee supply and advance the energy transition.
He carrierfor its part, owns and develops the physical assets of the network. Separate both responsibilities is intendedand prevent the person who identifies the investment needs from also being the one who obtains the regulated income associated with the infrastructures that are built.
That is the argument that is gaining ground in Portugal. António Vidigal, former CEO of EDPpointed out in “Jornal de Negocios” to the British model as a possible reference for REN.
The operation of the system, electrical dispatch, adjustment services, integrated energy planning, adequacy and security of supply studies and part of the long-term planning could remain in a separate structure, while REN would concentrate its activity on lines, substations and other transportation assets.
The idea also has a financial component. The Portuguese State has just committed hundreds of millions of euros to acquire a minority stake in a strategic company. An alternative would be to concentrate public capital on those functions that Lisbon considers essential from the point of view of energy security and leave the transport activity in the hands of REN.
It does not necessarily mean that the State should abandon its participation, but rather it proposes what it wants to use it for and what functions it considers truly strategic.
Nuno Ribeiro da Silva, who presided over Endesa Portugal between 2005 and 2023, questioned in the same Portuguese economic circle whether 13.7% of the capital is sufficient to provide the State with decisive influence over the major decisions of the system. In his opinion, having a presence on the council allows for supervision, but is not equivalent to having a true steering mechanism for the national energy strategy.
A more neutral operator
Vítor Santos, former president of the Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energeticos (ERSE), provides another argument: independence. A separate entity could make operating and planning decisions with greater distance from the economic interests of the network owner and, therefore, with a more direct orientation towards the general interest.
The proposed separation would not, therefore, be the response to an accredited failure of the company, but rather an institutional reform aimed at reinforcing the neutrality of decisions in an increasingly complex electrical system.
The transformation of the sector explains a good part of the discussion. The data center power demandthe renewable penetration with the expansion of solar and wind generation, storage, the electrification of industry and transportation and the growth of interconnections force anticipate with much more precision where and when it will be necessary to expand the network.
Portugal is experiencing precisely this acceleration. In the first half of 2026, REN increased its investment to 184.6 million euros, 23.1% more than a year before, while the company has placed the reinforcement of very high voltage infrastructures among its main priorities. In the first quarter, renewable generation covered 80% of needs of Portuguese electricity consumption.
He Iberian system, in addition, is strengthening its connections. In July, the new 400 kilovolt electrical link between northern Portugal and Galicia came into service, increasing the exchange capacity between both countries by about 1,000 MW. The network thus ceases to be a purely national issue and increasingly becomes a piece of the European energy architecture.
What is Spain doing?
The Portuguese debate coincides with a discussion that in Spain has acquired a new dimension. The National Markets and Competition Commission has just reviewed the measures aimed at guaranteeing the functional separation between the electricity system operator and the transmission network manager integrated into Red Eléctrica de España, a subsidiary of Redeia.
The report approved by the CNMC on May 14 does not question that Red Eléctrica has made progress in complying with the required measures, but it once again puts the focus on the limits of the Spanish modelbased on a functional and accounting separation within the same business group.
The document evaluated the criteria for separating the functions of system operator and management of the electric transmission network based on the conflict of interest that is generated.
The operator participates in the identification and planning of the network needs, while the carrier obtains regulated remuneration for the investments it makes in these infrastructures. The question, therefore, is not whether both functions can be organizationally separated, but whether this separation offers sufficient guarantees whenUltimately, they remain within the same business structure.
The CNMC has demanded greater guarantees of independence and has indicated that a legal separation would offer a higher degree of protection to the functional separation model currently applied in the electrical business. It is a relevant difference with respect to the gas, where Spanish legislation did establish a legal separation of certain functions.
The debate takes on greater relevance due to the investment cycle that Spain faces. Red Eléctrica is facing a network expansion linked to the incorporation of new renewable generation, the electrification of the economy, storage and interconnections. The company itself has defined its 2026-2029 plan as a historic investment cycle to execute electrical planning.
In this context, deciding who establishes the network needs and who builds those infrastructures is no longer a purely organizational issue. It has economic, regulatory and energy policy consequences.