Electricity consumption grows 7.1% in April

In April, electricity consumption showed a year-on-year increase of 7.1%, or 5.5% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days. At the end of the first four months of the year, consumption grew by 2.6%, or 3.2% when correcting for temperature and number of working days.
 
In April, a dry hydroelectric regime was maintained, with inflows of about half of the normal values for this time of year, corresponding to a capability index of 0.49 (historical average of 1). In wind power and photovoltaics, the regimes were more favourable with the capability index recording, respectively, 1.08 (historical average of 1) and 1.10 (historical average of 1). In these conditions, renewable generation supplied 54% of consumption, non-renewable generation accounted for 27%, while the remaining 19% were supplied using imported energy.
 
In the period from January to April, the hydropower capability index stood at 0.34 (historical average of 1), the wind-power capability index at 0.96 (historical average of 1), and solar at 1.06 (historical average of 1). During this period, renewable generation supplied 50% of consumption, split between wind with 28%, hydroelectric with 12%, biomass with 6%, and photovoltaics with 4%. Photovoltaics, although still the least representative technology, continues to show very high growth - 73% when compared to the same period last year -, reaching daily peaks above 1200 MW. Generation from natural gas supplied 30% of consumption, while the import balance supplied the remaining 20%.
 
In the natural gas market, there was a year-on-year contraction of 19% in April, with drops both in the conventional segment (minus 21%), in line with what has been seen in previous months, and in the electricity generation segment (minus 16%), the latter going against the trend of recent months. The supply was carried out almost entirely from the Sines LNG terminal, with exports via the interconnection with Spain that accounted for nearly 8% of domestic consumption this month.
 
In the four months of the year, the accumulated annual consumption of natural gas recorded a slight drop of 0.5%, with the 66% growth in the electricity generation segment not being enough to compensate for the 23% contraction in the conventional segment.