Portugal and Morocco will ask the European Commission (EC) to consider a long-mooted power interconnector between the two countries as a candidate for European Union (EU) funding, they said on Monday, while also exploring private-sector investment.
A crippling power blackout in Spain and Portugal in April 2025 exposed the Iberian Peninsula’s limited electricity links with the rest of Europe, helping revive plans for a Portugal and Morocco link first studied in 2018.
Iberia has only 3% of its electricity capacity connected to neighbouring European countries, well short of the EU’s 15% interconnection target for 2030.
Such a link with Morocco would strengthen energy security in Portugal, currently only connected to Spain, by providing an additional source of power in the event of disruptions.
Portugal’s Energy Minister Maria da Graca Carvalho said Lisbon and Rabat had agreed to raise the prospect of the power link being considered an Important Project of Common European Interest with EC Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera.
A new Europe, Africa electricity connection would strengthen both continents’ energy security and co-operation, Carvalho said.
–Reuters–
