Portugal as an electricity exporter country: Environmental and economic implications

This paper aims to explore the impacts of transforming Portugal into an electricity exporter country up to 2030 and 2050. The technological bottom-up model TIMES-PT is used to generate a range of electricity export scenarios. Results show that the increase of electricity exports contributes to a decrease of renewable electricity (RES-E). As mature renewable technologies achieve their maximum technical potential, natural gas is largely deployed to allow for increased exports. In the more ambitious export scenarios this can lead to non-compliance with the current national RES-E target in 2030 and also has consequences in terms of increased greenhouse gas emissions. Turning Portugal into a net electricity exporter also affects the average electricity price. Although higher exports result in higher generation costs, in 2050 export levels close to the projected increase of the interconnection capacity can lead to lower electricity prices.