Consumption of electricity decreases in September

Consumption of electricity decreased 0.3% in September. This was the first decrease since January this year. There was a slight increase of 0.2%, when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days. In the first nine months of the year, in comparison with the same period of last year, consumption increased 2.9%, or 2.7% when correcting for temperature and number of working days.

Also in September, the capability indices associated with renewable energies were all favourable - 1.23 (historical average of 1) for wind, 1.06 for solar, and 1.24 for hydropower. Photovoltaic generation continues to show very significant growth - almost 50% -, resulting from the increase of installed power, and with peaks above 1300 MW. In September, renewable generation supplied 44% of consumption, while non-renewables supplied 35%. The remaining 21% consisted of imported energy.

In the period from January to September, the capability index stood at 0.37 for hydropower, 0.96 for wind, and 1.10 for solar. Renewable generation supplied 45% of consumption, split between wind, providing 23%, hydroelectric with 9%, biomass with 7%, and photovoltaics with 6%. Generation from natural gas supplied 33% of consumption, the remaining 22% coming from imported energy.

In the natural gas market, consumption changed in September, with a negative year-on-year variation of 15% that, unlike what has been happening throughout the year, and presenting a negative behaviour both in the conventional segment, which continued the trend of the past few months, decreasing 22%, and in the electricity generation segment, which decreased 5% this month.

Between January and September, the consumption of natural gas recorded a negative year-on-year variation of 1.2%, stemming from a drop of 21% in the conventional segment, and from an increase of 38% in the electricity generation segment.