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Firms scramble for battery power in Spain and Portugal
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On the 28 April last year, Portugal and Spain went dark for several hours.
Key facts
- In December, the IDAE, Spain's Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy, awarded €827m in EU funds to 133 energy storage projects totalling 2,400MW
- In Spain, battery storage capacity has risen almost sevenfold since last April, from about 28 MW before the blackout to 193MW in April 2026, according to the grid operator Red Eléctrica
- Portugal's Vista Alegre, the oldest and largest porcelain maker in the Iberian country, decided to install energy storage systems in 2022, seizing the opportunity of abundant funds from the EU's
- The experience accelerated the company's plan to make their production process more resilient, company CEO Paulo Almeida tells the BBC
Summary
The Spanish meat processing firm Fribin, in Binéfar, in the north eastern province of Aragon, was midway through its morning shift when the sudden shutdown brought production lines to a halt. For Andrés Altabás, Fribin's technology and systems director, it was a nightmarish situation. The bosses at Fribin realised they had to rethink their back up plans. It was a big undertaking as the company's energy needs are "large", amounting to more than 25 gigawatt-hours a year, most of it for refrigeration.