Morocco wants to connect to Portugal to no longer depend on Spain

The prospect of an electricity link between Morocco and Portugal is worrying part of the Spanish press. Jornal Económico presents the project as a way for Rabat to no longer depend exclusively on Spain to exchange electricity with Europe.

The chronology nevertheless calls for separating this issue from the recent crisis in Ceuta. The project’s relaunch was announced on July 20 in Lisbon, following a meeting between Leila Benali, Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition, and her Portuguese counterpart Maria da Graça Carvalho, that is, before the events that occurred at the border.

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Morocco is currently connected to the European grid by the two Morocco-Spain submarine circuits, commissioned in 1997 and 2006. This infrastructure operates in both directions: the commercial capacities published by Red Eléctrica currently reach 900 megawatts from Spain to Morocco and 600 megawatts in the opposite direction. A connection with Portugal would therefore provide an additional route, without replacing the Spanish lines.

A project worth 800 million euros

Rabat and Lisbon have agreed to ask the European Commission to recognize the interconnection as an important project for Europe and Africa. This designation could give it access to European funding. The two countries also want to consult network operators, electricity producers and other private investors, the Portuguese Agency for Trade and Investment specifies.

The technical solution has not yet been settled, however. The Portuguese government is studying a direct submarine link, an arrangement involving Morocco, Portugal and Spain, or participation in private infrastructure. The project is still in the evaluation phase, and no investment decision has been made.

Its cost was estimated at around 800 million euros in 2018. Lisbon now considers this amount outdated because of changes in the prices of materials, technologies and possible routes. Portugal also warns that the interconnection will be built only with European funds or private capital, so that the bill is not borne by taxpayers and consumers.

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The cable would enable Morocco to export its solar or wind electricity surpluses to Portugal, while also importing electricity when its needs increase. Leila Benali believes that this two-way flow could reduce the cost of access to energy for people and businesses in both countries.

The link would also strengthen the security of the Portuguese grid, which is currently connected to the rest of Europe only through Spain. After the massive outage in April 2025, Maria da Graça Carvalho said that a connection with Morocco could have accelerated the restoration of power in Portugal. No construction schedule has been announced, however: the matter must first be presented to Brussels and discussed at the next Morocco-Portugal summit, expected in early 2027.