Knowledge

Ivone Rocha, partner and coordinator of Energy and Natural Resources practice at TELLES, shared with Jornal Eco her thoughts on the challenges and priorities of the European energy sector following the recent blackout in Portugal and Spain.

For Ivone Rocha, partner at TELLES, founder of EFELA (European Federation of Energy Law Associations) and member of the board of APDEN (Portuguese Association of Energy Lawyers), the incident is “yet another demonstration of the urgency of strengthening the energy link between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe”. Speaking to the press, the energy lawyer stressed that “it is essential for Portugal to be connected to Spain. It's a good thing that we have an Iberian energy market, which is essential for good price establishment and for security of supply itself”.

The TELLES partner also warned of the need to rethink the management of energy networks and systems, with a particular focus on the implementation of back-up solutions, such as the use of energy storage systems. “We still don't have any concrete data on what happened, but everything points to a sudden oscillation in power flows that isolated the Iberian grid. We need to restore and implement interconnections, but we also need to look at network management, with structured and technologically robust solutions” she concluded.

TELLES closely follows regulatory and strategic developments in the energy sector, providing specialised legal advice to public and private entities on all aspects of the energy transition in Portugal.

Click here to read the full article (only available in Portuguese).