Consumption of Electricity increases 5% in November

In November, electricity consumption recorded a strong year-on-year growth of 5.0%, boosted by the lower temperatures recorded during the month, in comparison with the same period in the previous year. There is still an increase of 2.9% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days. At the end of November, the accumulated annual variation is 3.0%, or 1.7% when correcting for temperature and number of working days.

This month, in hydraulic production, the corresponding index was 0.89. Conditions were more favourable in wind generation, with the corresponding index standing at 1.12. Renewable production supplied 52% of domestic consumption and non-renewable production supplied the remaining 48%. This month, the foreign trade balance once again favoured exports, amounting to around 6% of domestic consumption.

The annual hydropower capability index is 1.12 at the end of November, whereas the wind-power capability index is 1.01, almost in line with the historical average. From January to November, renewable production supplied 52% of consumption, broken down into 23% for wind power, 22% for hydropower, 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 21%. Foreign trade balance favoured exports, amounting to around 6% of the domestic consumption.

In the natural gas market, the trend of consumption reduction observed throughout the year continues, due to the drop in the electricity production segment, influenced by this year's greater availability of renewable energy. In November, domestic consumption recorded a year-on-year variation of -8.0% due to the 28% reduction in the electricity market's segment. In the conventional segment there continues to be robust growth with a year-on-year variation of +5.5% this month. At the end of November, the consumption of natural gas records a year-on-year annual variation of -6.9%, stemming from a decrease of 24% in the electricity market and from a growth of 4.5% in the conventional segment.