Portgás reaches historical milestone of 400 thousand customers

Portgás, a company fully owned by REN - Redes Energéticas Nacionais, surpassed, at the end of July, the milestone of 400 thousand customers, 25 years after it began supplying to residential users. This is an important milestone in the activity of the company, a natural gas distributor in 29 municipalities in the districts of Porto, Braga, and Viana do Castelo. Portgás is now the largest distributor in network size, serving over 25% of the country's customers, who represent the consumption of 30% of the gas distributed nationally.
 
Since 2018, Portgás has connected, on average, around 12 thousand customers per year to its network. The infrastructure of Portgás is now over 5 thousand kilometres in size, serving over 7 TWh of energy per year. The network covers all of the 29 municipalities in the company's concession area since it reached Paredes de Coura, at the end of 2021.
 
Within the scope of its Asset Decarbonisation and Digitisation strategy, the company has been working in partnership with universities, companies, and institutions to develop projects that accelerate the use of gases originating from renewable sources -like hydrogen-, and to foster the decarbonisation and digitisation of the networks. Portgás was the first Portuguese natural gas distributor to receive certification in RD&I, having also received official recognition in the areas of Quality, Environment, and Safety, and, most recently, in Business Continuity. The company's good practices have contributed to the growth of Portgás, as well as to the sustainability and resilience of the Portuguese gas sector.
 
Portgás was founded in 1988 and won the international tender for natural gas distribution in the northern coastal area of Portugal. In 1994, the works to create the first primary distribution network started, with the first customer being served in April 1997, in Maia. In 2009, it reached the milestone of 200 thousand customers. In October 2017, it was acquired by REN Gás S.A.