Renewable production supplies 63% of electricity consumption in the first eight months of the year

Renewable production supplied 63% of electricity consumption in Portugal in the first eight months of the year. Hydropower accounted for 28%, wind 25%, biomass 7%, and photovoltaics 3.6%. Non-renewable production supplied 30% of consumption, split between natural gas with 28% and coal with 2%, and the remaining 7% being imported energy.

In August, electricity consumption recorded a year-on-year change of 0.4%, or 0.3% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days. In the period from January to August, year-on-year consumption grew by 2.0%, or 2.7% when correcting for temperature and number of working days.  As compared with 2019, there was a 2% decrease.

Also in August, conditions were unfavourable for wind generation, with the corresponding capability index standing at 0.83 (historical average of 1), while in hydro generation the numbers are not significant at this time of the year. Renewable production supplied 42% of consumption, while non-renewable supplied 32%, and the import balance ensured the remaining 26%.

In the year to date, the hydropower capability index stood at 1.14 (historical average of 1) and the wind capability index at 0.97 (historical average of 1).

As for the natural gas market, in August there was a 21% year-on-year contraction, with decreases of 36% in the electricity production market and 7.6% in the conventional segment, which covers all other consumption. The drop in the conventional segment was due to reductions in large customers. 

In the period from January to August, natural gas year-on-year consumption contracted by 2.2%, despite the 5.8% increase in the conventional segment that was insufficient to offset the 16% drop in the electricity market.  There was a decrease of 6% vis-à-vis the same period in 2019.