Portugal’s largest utility EDP (EDP.LS), opens new tab is moving to supply the boom in data centre projects in Iberia, attracted by electricity prices that are set to remain low compared with much of Europe, CEO Miguel Stilwell de Andrade said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.
He said over 18 gigawatts of data centre projects in development or in the pipeline in Portugal and Spain “will support the strong electricity demand already in Iberia,” driven by structural, not temporary, factors.
“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 — a consortium of Britain’s Pioneer Point Partners and U.S. fund Davidson Kempner – is developing in Sines, 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of Lisbon.
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.
Due to the large deployment of wind and solar parks in Iberia, the EDP CEO said electricity prices for industrial customers in the region are around 17% below the EU average.
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.
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