Government Keeps Gondomar's Tapada do Outeiro Gas Plant on Blackout Standby Until 2029
The Turbogás plant near Porto stays under contract to 2029 as one of four stations able to restart the grid after a blackout. The regulator must still approve the terms, and the cost, which reaches bills through the tariff, has not been published.
The Government will keep the Tapada do Outeiro gas-fired power station in Gondomar, near Porto, under contract until 2029, and the plant will stay on call to restart the national grid after a blackout. An official source at the Ministério do Ambiente e Energia (Ministry of Environment and Energy) confirmed the extension to Observador, which reported it on Saturday. The terms still need the regulator's approval, and the ministry would not say what the service will cost.
Tapada do Outeiro, run by Turbogás (now controlled by Japan's Marubeni, according to Observador), was Portugal's first combined-cycle gas plant and has an installed capacity of 990 megawatts. With the contract running to 2029, Observador reported, the tender for the plant's future operation moves to 2030.
A plant that has lived on short extensions
The plant's long-term power purchase agreement with the grid operator ended on 29 March 2024. Since then it has run under a transitional deal with REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais, the national grid operator), approved by Despacho n.º 22/SEENC/2024, outside the wholesale market and at the system operator's call. A ministerial order, Despacho n.º 65/2025/MAEN, stretched that deal to 31 March 2026, according to a July 2025 opinion from the Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos (Energy Services Regulatory Authority, ERSE). Observador reports that it was extended again into 2026.
The reason is the law. Portugal's electricity system rules (Decreto-Lei n.º 15/2022) require at least two power stations with "black start" capability under contract at all times: plants that can fire up with no outside power and re-energise the grid. On 28 April 2025, REN rebuilt the transmission network from Castelo de Bode dam and Tapada do Outeiro, with full restoration at 23:22, ERSE said in a presentation to Parliament's blackout working group on 14 January.
The gas plant's performance that day was not perfect. ERSE found that the plant was asked to start at 11:43 but its unit 2 only energised the station at 15:38, three hours and 55 minutes against the one hour its contract required. The regulator concluded that, in the long run, the plant did not look like the best choice for the service and had not met the stricter technical requirements of REN's 2024 tender. But because the capacity is already built, ERSE said it was desirable to keep it available, with the price set in a competitive procedure.
How it fits with the new hydro plants
Since 1 January 2026 the Alqueva and Baixo Sabor dams have provided black start under five-year contracts won in a tender. As we reported on 9 November, Iberdrola's Tâmega complex has now replaced Castelo de Bode. Tapada do Outeiro makes a fourth plant, and the only gas-fired one. ERSE had suggested exactly this role: a back-up for the periods when one of the contracted dams is stopped for planned or unplanned work.
What it means for your bill
The cost of the transitional arrangement is recovered through the Uso Global do Sistema (Global Use of the System) charge, the part of every electricity tariff that funds energy-policy costs. ERSE's 2026 tariff decision put it at 2.64 million euros for this year, down from 29.9 million euros in 2025 tariffs, but noted that operating the plant in 2026 depended on an extension or a tender.
The cost of the new deal to 2029 has not been published. Observador reported that the ministry says it will sit within a wider package of services. The next step is ERSE's review of the terms. Until that is published, nobody can say how much the extra security will add to household bills.
