Portugal's energy regulator, the Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos (ERSE), announced on Tuesday that the average monthly electricity bill for most households on the regulated market will rise by about 2.7% starting October 1.
According to ERSE's simulations, a couple with no children and a contracted power of 3.45 kVA will pay 37.77 euros a month, up 0.95 euros from September. A couple with two children and a contracted power of 6.9 kVA will see their average monthly bill rise to 97.73 euros, an increase of 2.70 euros.
Why the price is going up
ERSE attributed the increase to higher-than-expected costs faced by the Comercializador de Último Recurso (CUR), Portugal's last-resort electricity supplier, in purchasing power for 2026. The regulator said this gap reflects rising prices on the wholesale electricity market throughout the year, a trend it linked largely to the war between Iran and the United States, which pushed up natural gas prices and, in turn, electricity prices.
"The magnitude of this rise was difficult to predict when tariffs for 2026 were set, since it stems largely from the effects of the war between Iran and the United States, which drove up the price of natural gas and, consequently, that of electricity," ERSE said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The Comercializador de Último Recurso is the supplier that serves households still on the regulated tariff, buying electricity on their behalf and passing on its acquisition costs under rules set by ERSE.
Who is affected
The new tariff takes effect on October 1 and applies to roughly 779,000 customers on the regulated market, a figure recorded in June that represents about 4.6% of total electricity consumption in Portugal.
ERSE noted, however, that the update does not force free-market suppliers to pass on the same increase, since each company follows its own strategy for sourcing electricity and setting commercial terms. Most Portuguese households have already moved to the liberalised market in recent years, leaving a shrinking pool of customers on the regulated tariff.
Quarterly review mechanism
The tariff update results from the quarterly revision mechanism set out in the Tariff Regulation, through which ERSE tracks the evolution of the CUR's electricity acquisition costs and adjusts prices accordingly during the year.
With this latest revision, the annual variation in regulated-market electricity prices for 2026 now stands at 1.7%, up from the 1% figure ERSE had announced at the end of 2025.
Related developments
The tariff rise comes amid wider political debate in Portugal over electricity costs and the role of the state in the energy sector.
