January with the highest electricity consumption ever

January saw the highest monthly electricity consumption ever recorded and showed a year-on-year growth of 2.7%, with a very marked first half, due to low temperatures, and a second half in decline, due to the new lockdown. When correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days, consumption decreased by 1.8%. 
 
The inflows to hydroelectric dams were close to the normal values for this month, with the corresponding capability index standing at 0.97 (historical average of 1), whereas there was a very favourable regime in wind generation, with the corresponding capability index standing at 1.09 (historical average of 1).  Thus, renewable production supplied 66.3% of the consumption, broken down into hydropower with 30.6%, wind power with 28.7%, biomass with 5.5%, and photovoltaics with 1.5%. Non-renewable production supplied 28.1%, broken down into natural gas with 24.1%, coal with 3.6%, and other non-renewable production with 0.4%. Foreign trade balance accounted for the remaining 5.6% of domestic consumption.
 
In the natural gas market, consumption was stronger during the first half of the month, due to the cold, with consumption in the national system showing historical highs, and less so during the second half, due to the beginning of the new lockdown.  At the end of the month, the consumption of natural gas showed a negative year-on-year variation of 11.6%, hampered by the 34% reduction in the electricity market, whereas there was a 1.9% growth in the conventional segment.