Domestic consumption of natural gas increases 16.5% in May

In May, the domestic consumption of natural gas recorded a year-on-year growth of 16.5%, driven by the power production segment, stemming from more unfavourable hydrological conditions this year. There was a year-on-year variation of 66% in this segment in May, whereas in the conventional segment there was a slight decrease of 0.3%. At the end of May, natural gas consumption grew 1.6% in the year to date, resulting from increases of 2.8% in the electricity market and 1.3% in the conventional market.

In May, the consumption of electricity grew 2.4%, or 1.2% when correcting for temperature and working days, compared to the same month of the previous year. In the first five months of the year, consumption recorded a year-on-year drop of 2.3%, which is reduced to 1.2% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days.

Inflows remained below average values for this time of year, with a hydropower capability index of only 0.56 (historical average of 1). In wind generation, by contrast, conditions were particularly favourable, with the corresponding capability index standing at 1.25 (historical average of 1). This month, renewable production fuelled 48% of domestic consumption, non-renewable production accounted for 42%, while the remaining 10% were supplied by imported energy.

The hydropower capability index for the period from January to May stands at 0.57 (historical average of 1), reflecting the dry year that has been experienced, while the wind power capability index is close to the average value at 0.98 (historical average of 1). In the same period, renewable production supplied 51% of consumption, broken down into wind power with 27%, hydropower with 17%, biomass with 5% and photovoltaics with 2%.  Photovoltaics, currently with around 600 MW connected to the grid, despite slow growth, exceeded 100 GWh in one month for the first time. Non-renewable production supplied 38% of consumption, with natural gas accounting for 24% and coal for 14%. Imports supplied around 11% of consumption.