Firms scramble for battery power in Spain and Portugal

On April 28th last year, Portugal and Spain experienced a power failure lasting several hours. The event caused widespread disruption, with people resorting to lanterns and old radios. Firms across Europe, many of which had previously relied on fossil fuel-based electricity, suddenly found themselves vulnerable to power cuts. In Spain, meat processing firm Fribin in Binéfar faced a critical situation when its production lines halted during the early morning shift.

Technology and systems director Andrés Altabás reported that refrigeration was prioritized, but all production lines had to be stopped, leading to significant losses of hundreds of thousands of euros.

Faced with this situation, Fribin decided to invest in a battery backup system, an idea that had previously been deemed too costly. The first module of a five megawatt-hour capacity was purchased in June 2025, and a second module of the same capacity was ordered in early June 2026, resulting in an investment of around €1.5m, partly funded by the European Union's Next Generation funds.

Companies across Europe have been increasingly turning to electricity from fossil fuels, encouraged by EU subsidies, but this has also made them more susceptible to power outages. In Spain, battery storage capacity has surged almost sevenfold since April, from about 28 MW to 193 MW in April 2026, according to the grid operator Red Eléctrica.

Spain's Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE) has allocated €827m in EU funds to 133 energy storage projects totaling 2,400 MW, with around 80% being battery storage. This surge in investment is driving battery suppliers to meet more advanced customer requirements, such as seamless backup capabilities and faster delivery times.

In Portugal, Vista Alegre, the country's oldest and largest porcelain maker, decided to install energy storage systems in 2022, taking advantage of EU funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan. The blackout served as a catalyst for this process, and the company's facilities in Ílhavo are now equipped with modules with around 2MWh of storage capacity.

Vista Alegre sees additional benefits in selling energy back to the network when market conditions are favorable, and Primus Ceramics, a ceramic manufacturer near Aveiro, has also increased its battery capacity to better withstand power disruptions.