More than a history of electricity itself, this is ‘a history of electricity in Portugal’, from the emergence of the rst applications of electricity in public space in the late nineteenth century until more recent times.
While other stories about electricity can also be told, this is the history of its use in Portugal: from the ways it has been produced to the patterns of its adoption in the business sector, its various uses in the domestic sphere, and its impact on social relations and the e ects of this on the economy and everyday life.
Outlining the role of electricity use in almost all developments and transformations in Portugal during the twentieth century has not been a simple task and its importance continues for the material modernisation of the individual and collective life of the country, particularly in terms of the comfort and range of experiences that its intensive and increasing use have allowed.
This history of electricity in Portugal tries to tell many stories at the same time, from the small steps often taken in places little-known for their role in modernisation, innovation or pioneering spirit, to the larger structural and national history taking place within a broader reading of the country’s economic and social evolution in the last century. Rather than disputing the core narrative surrounding this theme, this work aims to offer an in-depth yet concise account of that which was ‘(a) history of electricity in Portugal’.
Lamego has the honour of being the rst city in Portugal to receive operational electricity facilities, arising during the city’s celebrations of its Patron Saint in August and September of 1876.
The fact that the Ponte do Côa power station, which has belonged to EDP since the mid-1970s, remains in operation today means it has produced electricity almost without interruption since the middle of 1906, making it the country’s oldest power station still in operation.
The power station at São Domingos Mine, located nearby Alcoutim, may have been the rst to start operating in the country, which would also mean ironically that the site of the country’s rst power station is located near the last town in the country to be connected to the electricity network.
A voice also emerges in the history of a Portugal not so dazzled by ‘progress,’ a Portugal for whom untamed nature and the indomitable river without any obstacle to its progress was preferable to anything else that modernity may wish to build next door.
We left almost as soon as we had arrived. We were surrounded by people staring at us.
“They are the dam engineers,” said a young lad.
An old woman with the face of a prophetess stepped forward, examined us xedly and said:
‘We don’t want progress... we don’t want the dam here.’
And all assembled, inspired by the old woman, exclaimed as one:
‘We don’t want progress... we don’t want the dam here.’"1
Traditional forms of electricity generation in Portugal include coal, fuel and oil- red power plants and hydroelectric plants, which were the models built for the production of electricity from the nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century. New forms of energy production are mostly based on renewable sources, such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and tidal power (wave energy).
In the second decade of the twenty- rst century the concerns of the electricity sector are no longer the same as in the past, which mostly centred around questions such as how to produce energy, which networks to establish, how to ensure supply to consumers and how to determine prices. Nowadays, almost all these questions have been answered. The major issues arising today include such questions as the following: How to store electrical energy? How to lower production costs? How to optimise supply versus demand? What future challenges will the electricity sector face? One other, perhaps bolder question is whether it is possible to transmit electricity over distance?
One point which is beyond question is that our use of electricity is set to continue long into the future.
