Following the 28 April 2025 Iberian blackout, Portugal’s new Environment and Energy Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho instructed grid operator REN to restart talks with Moroccan utility ONEE on the proposed Tavira–Béni Harchane HVDC interconnector; preliminary diplomatic calls were held and a first minister-level meeting was scheduled for late summer, marking the formal resumption of bilateral work on the link.
By July 2025, the Moroccan and Portuguese governments had set a joint target to submit an updated construction-and-financing dossier for the Béni Harchane–Tavira HVDC interconnector by December 2025, contingent on synchronising environmental approvals on both shores, as a step towards potential inclusion in ENTSO-E’s Ten-Year Network Development Plan and eventual procurement opening around 2027.
HVDC World reports that Morocco and Portugal aim to synchronise environmental approvals so they can submit an updated construction-and-financing dossier for the Beni Harchane–Tavira 1,000 MW HVDC interconnector to Brussels by December 2025, a key regulatory step in advancing the project and unlocking potential EU support.
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The Morocco–Portugal HVDC link (Béni Harchane – Tavira) is a proposed cross‑border high‑voltage direct current interconnector promoted by the governments of Morocco and Portugal and advanced in studies by the national transmission operators ONEE (Morocco) and REN (Portugal). The project is intend...
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MA-PT, MAPT, TAVIRA–BEN HARCHANE, Ben Harchane–Tavira, Interconexão Marrocos–Portugal, Interconnexion Maroc–Portugal, Interconexão MA-PT (Tavira-Béni Harchane), TAVIRA (PT) - BEN HARCHANE (MA)
Following the major Iberian blackout of 28 April 2025, Portugal’s environment and energy minister Maria da Graça Carvalho ordered grid operator REN to restart talks with Morocco’s ONEE and, by ministerial order, required both TSOs to deliver within six months a pre-design and financing blueprint for a proposed ~1 GW Portugal–Morocco HVDC cable, for which a joint-venture capital cost of around €650 million (€325 million on the Portuguese side) and potential EU co-funding via the Connecting Europe Facility are being examined.
Hespress reports that in July 2025 Portugal’s government, via Energy Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho, announced a €400 million investment plan that for the first time explicitly includes the possibility of joining an existing direct electricity interconnection project with Morocco, with very preliminary contacts made and a first bilateral meeting at ministerial level to follow.
Following the major Iberian Peninsula blackout of 28 April 2025, Portugal’s new Environment and Energy Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho instructed grid operator REN to restart talks with Morocco’s ONEE on a direct HVDC link between Tavira and Beni Harchan(e). By ministerial order, REN and ONEE were given six months to file a pre‑design and financing blueprint for the approximately 1 GW subsea interconnector, with preliminary diplomatic contacts already underway at the time of the July 2025 reporting.
On 28 July 2025, Portugal announced a €400 million investment plan that, for the first time, officially included the possibility of a direct power connection with Morocco; Energy Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho confirmed very preliminary contacts with Morocco, indicated that a first meeting at her ministry between the two sides would follow, and, by ministerial order, gave REN and ONEE a mandate to develop a pre-design and construction-and-financing model or blueprint for the approximately 1 GW Portugal–Morocco HVDC interconnector.
At COP28 in Dubai, the Portuguese and Moroccan governments signed a joint declaration that framed the planned 1,000 MW HVDC cable between Béni Harchane and Tavira as a backbone for a future green-hydrogen corridor, explicitly linking Moroccan production clusters in Guelmim-Oued Noun with Portugal’s Port of Sines and adding a strategic hydrogen dimension to the interconnector project.
On publication of the Med‑TSO project sheet in December 2020, the governments of Morocco and Portugal were reported to have jointly launched the elaboration of a dedicated feasibility study for the new 1,000 MW, ~265 km HVDC interconnection between Béni Harchane and Tavira, with the study described as presently under development. The project was classified as a long‑term interconnection with commissioning date to be determined, confirming that formal feasibility work on the Ben Harchane–Tavira link was underway.
By 2018, the governments of Portugal and Morocco had mandated their transmission system operators REN and ONEE to submit a preliminary draft proposal covering both the construction and financing model for the 1,000 MW HVDC interconnection between Tavira (Portugal) and Bni Harchane (Morocco), as part of an ongoing feasibility study for the project.
By July 2018, the Morocco–Portugal HVDC interconnection (MAPT) between the 400 kV Tavira substation in Portugal and the 400 kV Beni Harchan(e) substation in Morocco was being studied under Med‑TSO’s Mediterranean Master Plan, with the two governments supporting the project and having launched several technical and network studies on the possible 1,000 MW, ~265 km HVDC link. These Med‑TSO tasks included detailed network and security analyses to identify necessary internal grid reinforcements and to evaluate technologies and configurations for the interconnector, promoted by REN and ONEE.
By mid-2018, the governments of Portugal and Morocco had formally signalled their support for a new 1,000 MW HVDC interconnection between Tavira (Portugal) and Bni Harchane (Morocco), issuing official declarations of willingness to develop the project and mandating TSOs REN and ONEE to submit, within a short time, a preliminary draft proposal covering both the construction and financing model.
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