Renewable Energy Supplies 90% of Consumption in April

Renewable energy supplied 90% of total electricity consumption in Portugal during April. This result was due to favourable weather conditions, especially for hydroelectric production, which recorded a productivity index of 1.52 (historical average equal to 1). Wind energy production also performed well, with an index of 1.10. In solar energy, the index did not exceed 0.67 despite the consistent increase in installed capacity. Non-renewable energy production accounted for 8% of consumption, while the remaining 2% was supplied by imported energy.

In April, electricity consumption increased by 0.9% compared to the same month last year, or 3.4% after adjusting for temperature effects and the number of working days. For the period from January to April, consumption grew by 2.3% compared to the same period last year, a figure that remains unchanged even after adjusting for temperature and working days. This is the highest consumption ever recorded in the national system for this period, 0.8% above the previous maximum recorded in 2010.

In the first four months of the year, the hydroelectric productivity index stood at 1.44, wind productivity at 1.04 and solar productivity at 0.74. Also in this period, renewable production supplied 83% of consumption, distributed between hydroelectric (40%), wind (29%), photovoltaic (8%) and biomass (5%). Natural gas production supplied 11% of consumption, and imports supplied the remaining 6%.
In the natural gas market, consumption grew by 4.2% year-on-year in April, driven by the electricity production segment, which grew 4.5 times compared to the same period last year. However, the conventional segment, which includes other consumers, continued its downward trend, with an 11% year-on-year drop.

The national system was supplied entirely from the Sines LNG terminal. At the end of April, cumulative annual gas consumption grew by 0.7%, as a result of a 36% increase in the electricity production segment and a 7% decrease in the conventional segment. The Sines Terminal supplied 95% of national consumption, mainly from Nigeria (52%) and the USA (36%).