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MCS Portugal Restores Production After Power Outage using Cogeneration System
Following a widespread power outage in Portugal, MCS Portugal, a ceramics manufacturer based in Leiria, successfully restored production at one of its facilities by utilizing its cogeneration system. The outage, which began on February 5th, 2024, impacted numerous businesses and households across the country. The Portugal News reported widespread disruptions.
Independent Operation Through Cogeneration
the company was able to redirect power from its cogeneration system – which produces both heat and electricity – to its production machines. Fernando Leite, Director of Operations at the Leiria unit and a member of the MCS Portugal executive committee, highlighted the challenge of initiating the system with the new functionality, which had never been tested, even after a previous power outage in April 2023.
A generator was initially used to start the cogeneration process. Once operational, the turbine proved sufficient to fully power production, eliminating reliance on the public power grid. Sofia Batista, also involved in the recovery effort, emphasized that resuming production would have been unfeasible without this capability. If they had been dependent on E-Redes (Portugal’s electricity grid operator), production would have remained halted.
Key Clients Informed of Resumed Operations
As of February 6th, 2024, MCS Portugal informed its major clients that the Leiria facility was operational under these circumstances.