Transport represents a quarter of the European Union's greenhouse gas emissions and, within it, it is road transport that represents the largest percentage. To achieve climate goals, the European Commission's "Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy" defines objectives to make mobility greener and more resilient, while ensuring the decarbonization of the transport sector and the connectivity of the European Union. How does Portugal assume these commitments? What strengths does Portugal have in this transition?

This webinar will be in Portuguese

What benefits does distributed generation offer consumers?

Distributed generation offers several advantages over centralised generation. From a technical point of view, distributed generation is directly connected to the distribution grid, avoiding having to pass through the transmission grid to bring electricity to the end consumer. In this way, power losses are reduced. 

From the system management point of view, electricity self-consumption allows the end consumer to make the most of the energy resource, thereby reducing difficulties between power supply and demand management. 

Advantages of distributed generation: 

• Less CO₂ emissions: Electricity generation comes mainly from renewable sources that generate low emissions.
• Reduces loss in the power grid: By being closer to the consumer, transmission grids are shorter, which implies lower energy losses in the transport of electricity and savings for the system.
• Increased reliability and quality of the electrical system: more generation points reduce dependence on large power plants.
• Access to renewable and local energy by the general public: Thanks to these models, consumers reduce their emissions by accessing the locally generated renewable energy.
• Cost savings: on the demand side, consumers can reduce electricity costs and, on the supply side, technical system management costs are reduced, since there are fewer electricity flows in transmission and distribution.