Portugal breaks electricity consumption record in the first nine months

Between January and September, electricity consumption reached 40.5 TWh, the highest figure ever recorded in the national grid for this period, exceeding the previous record set in 2025 by 3.4 per cent (2.9 per cent after adjusting for temperature and working days). In September alone, electricity consumption rose by 6.8 per cent year-on-year (3.3 per cent when adjusted for temperature and working days), driven by the high temperatures experienced.

In the first nine months of the year, renewable generation met 64 per cent of consumption, broken down as follows: hydroelectric 24 per cent, wind 23 per cent, solar photovoltaic 13 per cent and biomass 5 per cent. Natural gas-fired generation met 14 per cent of consumption, with the remaining 22 per cent coming from imported energy, representing the highest ever import balance for this period. During this period, the hydroelectric productivity index stood at 1.21, the wind productivity index at 0.97 and the solar productivity index at 0.82 (historical averages of 1).

In September, renewable generation met 52 per cent of national consumption, non-renewable generation 13 per cent, whilst the remaining 35 per cent came from imported energy. The solar productivity index stood at 0.96, the wind index at 0.88 and the hydro index at 1.39 (historical averages of 1).

In the natural gas market, there was a 12 per cent decline in September, with falls of 15 per cent in the electricity generation segment and 10 per cent in the conventional segment. Over the first nine months of the year, natural gas consumption totalled 33.2 TWh, with a marginally positive year-on-year change of 0.5 per cent, resulting from increases of 4.5 per cent in the electricity market and a decrease of 1.2 per cent in the conventional market.

In September, the national supply was provided entirely from the Sines LNG terminal, whilst the interconnection with Spain recorded a net export, equivalent to 62 per cent of national consumption.

In the first nine months of the year, the national system has been supplied almost entirely from the Sines terminal, with gas predominantly originating from Nigeria (58%), followed by the USA (34%) and Russia (8%). The net export via the interconnector with Spain for this period was the highest ever recorded in the national system.