Investing.com — Portugal’s largest utility is positioning itself to supply the growing number of data centre projects in Iberia, drawn by electricity prices expected to remain low compared with much of Europe, CEO Miguel Stilwell de Andrade said Thursday.
Over 18 gigawatts of data centre projects are in development or in the pipeline in Portugal and Spain, which “will support the strong electricity demand already in Iberia,” driven by structural factors, Stilwell de Andrade said at a conference with analysts.
“EDP is obviously engaging with many of these projects,” the CEO said.
“Iberia has a distinctive advantage, which we expect to benefit from – structurally affordable power prices,” he said, adding that this is crucial for these projects.
On Wednesday, EDP signed a partnership to supply renewable power to the 1.2-GW data centre that Start Campus is developing in Sines, 150 kilometres south of Lisbon. Start Campus is a consortium of Britain’s Pioneer Point Partners and U.S. fund Davidson Kempner.
Electricity demand rose 3.6% in Portugal and 2.8% in Spain in 2025, outperforming most EU markets, where average growth was just 0.4%, Stilwell de Andrade said.
EDP is projecting 2% annual growth in Iberian demand through 2030, supported by “electrification of transport, industry, beyond data centres,” Stilwell de Andrade said.
Portugal and Spain have “several structural factors that will help keep electricity prices low”, he said, including the full repayment by 2028 of the electricity systems tariff debt, which has weighed on consumer bills.
“That means there will be cost reductions in the tariff structure going forward,” he said.
New regulatory frameworks guarantee pre-tax returns of 6.7% on electricity network investments in Portugal through 2029, and 6.58% in Spain through 2031, “giving EDP clarity and stability for the next investment cycle,” Stilwell de Andrade said.
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