This Friday, November 14th, ERSE – Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos placed a proposal for updating the time periods applicable to electricity tariffs in mainland Portugal for public consultation, it said in a note published on its website.
This proposal aims to “adapt hourly periods to the evolution of electrical consumption and production patterns, promoting more efficient use of networks and a better correspondence between hourly periods and the real profile of use of the electrical system”.
ERSE certifies that, in the long term, it will allow “reduce the need to invest in electricity transmission and distribution networks, and, with this, reduce network costs for all consumers”.
The process takes place in a context where 99% of normal low voltage (BTN) customers already have smart meters, which allows for a “potential application of the new time periods by all consumers in BTN”.
According to ERSE, the proposal implies, for “Customers with three-hour and four-hour structures, placing peak hours mainly at the end of the day, eliminating rush hours in the morning and early afternoon”.
For customers using the bi-hourly option, “the proposal consists of delaying the start of the non-empty period by one hour in the daily cycle”, that is, starting at 09:00 and ending at 23:00 and by half an hour on weekdays in the weekly cycle, starting at 07:30 and ending at 00:30.
“The proposal maintains the current daily durations of peak, flood, normal empty and super empty periods, which are set out in the Electricity Sector Tariff Regulation, adjusting only the beginning and end of each period to the use of electrical networks”he highlighted.
ERSE also indicated that the proposals presented include “a set of simplifications, including the definition of a uniform daily cycle throughout the year, without differentiating between winter and summer legal hours, and the maintenance of a single weekly cycle, thus putting an end to the optional cycle that only applied to very high voltage (MAT), high voltage (AT) and medium voltage (MT) customers”.
The regulator also said that “each client can evaluate the proposed change for their individual profile using one of the calculators developed for this purpose”.
The public consultation will accept comments until January 23, 2026.
After the end of this public consultation and analysis of the contributions, ERSE will “approve the final version of the new time periods, which, according to the proposal, will never come into force before January 1, 2027”.