According to the status update given to Lusa by the EDP group company, “the teams are already on the ground and the expectation is to have everything restored by the end of the morning”.

The causes of the faults were mainly falling trees and branches that damaged posts and conductors, leaving around 400 thousand customers without power by 9:00 am on Wednesday.

The company responsible for operating the electricity distribution network in mainland Portugal at low, medium and high voltage admitted on Wednesday that due to the “severity of the damage found” in some cases, restoration would take longer.

“Given the efforts of the teams on the ground, who have been working since 5:00 am [on Wednesday], we are mobilising operators from other geographical areas to allow operational rotation and maintain this recovery effort in restoring power to all affected customers”, highlighted E-Redes, in a statement.

According to the information received today, the work to restore electricity should be completed by the end of this morning.

According to the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), the North region was the most affected by the storm, with many trees falling due to the strong winds.

ANEPC recorded 1,329 incidents related to the strong winds between 6:00 pm on Tuesday and 9:00 am on Wednesday.