Consumption of natural gas increases 3.3% in August

The consumption of natural gas increased 3.3% in August, compared to the same period of the previous year. This growth was supported by the power production segment, as a result of the high utilisation of natural gas plants. There was a year-on-year reduction of 6.7% in this segment, whereas the conventional segment showed a year-on-year increase of 0.5%.

In the first eight months of the year, natural gas consumption recorded a year-on-year change of 3.2%, with increases of 9.2% in the electricity market and 0.5% in the conventional market.

In August, the electricity consumption recorded a 4% drop compared to the same month of the previous year, due to the effect of temperatures, which, this year, were close to the average values for this month, unlike the previous year, in which they were far above the normal values. When correcting for the effects of temperature and working days, the decrease is 0.7%. At the end of this month, accumulated annual consumption recorded a year-on-year drop of 2%, or 0.8% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days.

Renewable production supplied 40% of domestic consumption in August, with non-renewable production supplying 45%. The remaining 15% were supplied by imports.

The hydropower capability index for the first eight months of the year stood at 0.59 (historical average of 1), reflecting the very dry regime that has been observed, while the wind-power capability index was 0.97 (historical average of 1), slightly below the average regime. In the same period, production was similarly divided between renewable and non-renewable sources, with around 45% each, the remaining 10% being supplied by imports. Within renewable production, wind-power accounted for 24% of the consumption, hydropower for 14%, biomass for 5% and photovoltaic for 2.3%. In non-renewable production, natural gas supplied 31 % of consumption, and coal, 13 %.