Renewable generation supplied 81% of electricity consumption in January

Electricity consumption recorded a year-on-year increase of 1.6% in January, which rises to 3.0% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days.

The weather conditions were especially favourable for hydropower generation, with a capability index of 1.30 (historical average of 1), but unfavourable for wind power and photovoltaics with capability indices of 0.88 and 0.85, respectively.

Nevertheless, on 16 January, the wind farms reached their highest-ever power output delivered to the grid, with a peak of around 4,900 MW. Reflecting the weight of the hydropower component, renewable generation represented 81% of consumption in January.

Hydropower accounted for 47%, wind power for 25%, biomass for 5%, and photovoltaics for 4%. Non-renewable generation, through natural gas power stations, supplied 14% of consumption, while the remaining 5% corresponds to imported energy.

In the natural gas market, consumption recorded a positive trend with a 6.4% increase, interrupting this month the downward trend observed throughout the previous year, driven by positive year-on-year behaviours, both in the conventional segment, with a growth of 3.6%, and in the electricity production segment.

In the latter case, the increase was around 15%, resulting from lower availability of renewable energy this year compared to the previous year.