In a statement, the EDP group company said that by 4:30 pm, 90% of the incidents had already been resolved, after the number of customers without power reached 175,000 at 11:45 am.

At 9:00 am, around 400,000 customers were without power.

The main cause of the breakdowns has been falling trees and branches that have damaged poles and conductors, it explained.

At this time, 56 generators are installed on the ground to minimise the impact associated with these faults on the electrical grid, revealed E-Redes.

The EDP group company, responsible for the operation of the electricity distribution network in mainland Portugal at low, medium and high voltage, warned that due to the “severity of the damage found” in some cases, the restoration will take longer.

“Given the efforts of the teams on the ground, who have been working since 5:00 am, we are mobilizing operators from other geographical areas to allow operational rotation and maintain this recovery effort to restore power to all affected customers”, it stressed.

The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) registered between 6:00 pm on Tuesday and 9:00 am today 1,329 incidents related to strong winds, the vast majority of which were fallen trees.

“The North region was the most affected by the bad weather with 988 occurrences, with the highest number, 415, being recorded in the Metropolitan Area in Porto with many trees falling due to the action of the wind”, indicated the ANEPC operations officer, José Miranda.

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