Portugal is looking at a new electricity connection with Morocco after the massive blackout that hit Spain and Portugal in April 2025. The plan is part of efforts to make Portugal’s power supply more reliable and reduce its dependence on Spain. Portugal’s Environment and Energy Minister, Maria da Graça Carvalho, said she will discuss the idea with Morocco’s Energy Transition Minister, Leila Benali, during a meeting in Lisbon.
She said the project would only move forward if a cost-benefit study showed it was worthwhile.
Portugal currently has electricity links only with Spain. A direct connection with Morocco would give the country another route to import or export electricity if one network fails.
The proposal comes after the April 28 blackout, which started in Spain before spreading to Portugal. The outage left Portugal cut off because all of its international electricity links go through Spain. It took between 11 and 12 hours to fully restore power.
Since then, Portugal has doubled the number of power stations that can restart the electricity grid without outside power, increasing them from two to four.
The government has not said how a Portugal-Morocco link would be built. It could be a new undersea cable or use existing infrastructure through Spain.
The talks also highlight a wider problem. The Iberian Peninsula has limited electricity connections with the rest of Europe. Current cross-border capacity is about 3% of the region’s installed power capacity, far below the European Union’s target of 15% by 2030.
Spain and France are linked by four electricity interconnectors. A fifth undersea cable through the Bay of Biscay is due to open in 2028, increasing exchange capacity from 2.8 gigawatts to 5 gigawatts. Two more links across the Pyrenees are planned, which would raise capacity to about 8 gigawatts.
Morocco is the only African country connected to Europe’s electricity grid. It already has two undersea power cables with Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar. Together they have a technical capacity of 1,400 megawatts.
During the April blackout, Morocco sent emergency electricity to Spain through those cables, showing it could help support the regional grid during a crisis.
A third Spain-Morocco power link is expected to be completed in late 2026. A direct connection between Portugal and Morocco is being studied as a possible project around 2030.
A study published in the journal Energy Policy in July 2025 found that Morocco’s electricity system fits well with those of Spain and Portugal. Demand in the Iberian Peninsula is usually highest in winter, while Morocco’s peaks come in summer because of air conditioning. The study said a direct link could allow Portugal to import Moroccan solar power during the day and export wind or hydropower when Morocco’s electricity demand rises in the evening.
