Regulators have fined the production arm of Energias de Portugal, the country’s leading power utility, €48m for abuse of market dominance over a five-year period, saying it was responsible for “a serious restriction of competition”.
The Competition Authority (AdC) said in a statement on Thursday that “EDP Produção”, a division of Portugal’s largest listed company, had manipulated its tele-regulation services between 2009 and 2013 to the detriment of consumers. Tele-regulation, also known as secondary reserve, services are designed to balance the power on offer from different generating units to ensure that demand from consumers is met in a swift and effective manner.
The AdC said “EDP Produção” had manipulated its services in such a way that it was “paid twice”, simultaneously receiving higher compensation payments for one set of generating plants and higher revenues from another set.
EDP said in a stock market filing on Thursday that it would appeal against the decision, stating it had “always acted in accordance with the existing legal and contractual framework and with competition law in mind”.
EDP shares were down 1.46 percent in mid-morning trading on Thursday.
This news came as EDP and BP jointly inaugurated the first of 30 fast-charging electric car stations in Faro. The rest are to be installed across the country, connected to the MOBI.E network, which will take into account the geographical spread of the public charging network as well as the users' charging needs of those with electric vehicles across the various regions of the country.
The two companies are already planning to open 10 more fast-charging stations in the coming weeks, from the north to the south of the country, thus fulfilling a commitment to promote electric vehicles in Portugal.
