Until quite recently, Electricidade de Portugal (EdP), the national power utility, enjoyed a monopoly of electricity production, transport and supply. If you needed power in Portugal, you were a customer of EdP.

But by next July, when distribution to domestic consumers is opened to competition in the last stage of an extensive liberalisation process, Joa~o Talone, the group’s chief executive, warns that EdP will not technically be able to count on having a single customer.