Consumption of electricity increases 4.4% in September

Consumption of electricity increased 4.4% year over year in September, influenced by temperatures higher than the normal values for this time of the year. Considering the correction for the temperature effects and for the number of working days, this change is +1.4%. The accumulated annual variation is now 3.0%, or 1.7% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days.

This month, the hydrological conditions remained favourable, in spite of low levels of rainfall, with a hydrological index of 1.48 (historical average of 1). This value was primarily due to flows coming into the Douro basin from releases in upstream Spanish reservoirs. Wind production, in a month which, is already the lowest in the year statistically, recorded weak numbers, with the corresponding capability index standing at 0.61 (historical average of 1). This is the lowest capability index since records are kept (2001). As a whole, renewable production was at the lowest level in the year, supplying 34% of domestic consumption + exports. Foreign trade balance continued to slightly favour exports, this month amounting to 2.6% of the domestic consumption.

The annual hydropower capability index is, at the end of the month, 1.20 (historical average of 1), whereas the wind-power capability index is 0.98 (historical average of 1), slightly below the average value. From January to September, renewable production supplied 52% of consumption, broken down into 24% for hydropower, 21% for wind power, 5% for biomass and 1.6% for photovoltaics. Non-renewable production supplied the remaining 48% of consumption, with natural gas accounting for 27% and coal for 20%. Foreign trade balance favoured exports, amounting to around 7% of the domestic consumption.

In the natural gas market, in September, although there was a slight reduction of less than 2.5% in the electricity segment, the conventional segment's growth of 2.4% led to a year-on-year increase of 0.3%. At the end of September, the consumption of natural gas records a negative year-on-year annual variation of 7.3%, stemming from a decrease of 25% in the electricity market and from a growth of 4.7% in the conventional segment.