Consumption of electricity decreases 13.2% in May

The consumption of electric power decreased 13.2% year over year, and this figure does not change when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days. This is a similar decrease to the one seen in the previous month and is the lowest recorded consumption for the month of May since 2003. The accumulated annual evolution is negative, at 4.7%, or 4.6%, when correcting for temperature and working days. 
 
In May, the hydrological conditions remained favourable, leading to a hydropower capability index of 1.05 (historical average of 1), whereas in wind generation the corresponding capability index was 0.72 (historical average of 1). Renewable production fuelled 56% of domestic consumption and non-renewable production accounted for 27%, while the remaining 17% were supplied with imported energy. 
 
From January to May, the hydropower capability index stood close to the average value, at 0.97 (historical average of 1), whereas the wind-power capability index was 0.84 (historical average of 1), which is the lowest value recorded by REN (since 2001). In the same period, renewable production supplied 67% of consumption, broken down into 34% for hydropower, 24% for wind power, 7% for biomass and 2.3% for photovoltaics, with the latter showing, proportionally, the highest growth. Non-renewable production supplied 28% of consumption, with virtually only natural gas, with coal production still being residual. In this period, the import balance favoured imports, amounting to around 5% of the domestic consumption.
 
In the natural gas market, domestic consumption accentuated the downward trend seen in the previous month, with a year-on-year negative variation of 32%, which was the result of a negative variation of 28% in the conventional segment and of an also negative variation of 40% in the power production segment. The decrease in the conventional segment was influenced by large consumers who anticipated their annual stoppages.
 
From January to May, there was a 2.1% decrease in consumption, with an 18% growth in the electricity market not being enough to compensate for the 8.7% drop in the conventional segment.