Lisbon, Nov. 4, 2025 (Lusa) - The Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE) announced on Tuesday that 99% of normal low-voltage (220V) installations in mainland Portugal are connected to smart grids, covering mainly domestic customers and small businesses.
According to the latest report on the state of smart electricity grids, by the end of the first half of 2025, 99% of customers had a smart meter integrated into a smart grid, benefiting from services such as daily consumption readings and remote changes to the contracted power.
‘The process of installing smart meters and integrating them into the smart grid in mainland Portugal can therefore be considered practically complete, fulfilling the objective set out in Decree-Law 15/2022 of 14 January, which stipulated that the integration of meters into the smart grid should be completed by the end of 2024,’ the regulator said in a statement.
Portugal joins other European countries where smart meter use is widespread, such as Austria, Spain, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian and Baltic countries.
In mainland Portugal, there are 11 electricity distribution network operators, including E-REDES, which serves 99.5% of normal low voltage customers.
At the end of the first half of 2025, around 40,000 meters had yet to be installed, and around 70,000 installations had yet to be integrated. Since 2015, E-REDES has installed between 450,000 and 900,000 smart meters per year.
Of the remaining ten operators, responsible for 0.5% of low-voltage customers, half have already completed the installation of smart meters - A LORD, A CELER, Cooperativa Eléctrica de Vale d'Este, Cooperativa Eléctrica de Loureiro and Cooperativa Eléctrica de S. Simão de Novais - although they still don't provide all the planned services or offer them to all their customers.
Four operators - Casa do Povo de Valongo do Vouga, A Elétrica Moreira de Cónegos, CoopRoriz and Cooperativa Eléctrica de Vilarinho - have yet to finalise installation. In contrast, the Cortes do Meio Parish Council has yet to start the process, ERSE explains. All of them plan to complete integration by the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026.
The report only covers mainland Portugal. In the autonomous regions, the integration process should be completed by 2026 in Madeira and by 2028 in the Azores.
According to ERSE, the development of smart grids is essential to respond to the demands of the energy transition and to enable new forms of consumer participation, such as dynamic tariffs, self-consumption, energy sharing, electric mobility and grid flexibility services.
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