Renewables supply 61% of electricity consumption in the first nine months of 2021

The production of energy from renewable sources supplied 61% of domestic consumption in the first nine months of the year. Energy from hydropower sources provided 28%, wind 24%, biomass 7%, and photovoltaic 3.7%, while non-renewable generation supplied 31% of consumption, split between natural gas with 29% and coal with 2%, the remaining 8% coming from imported energy. In the first nine months of the 2021, the hydropower capability index stood at 1.13 (historical average of 1) and the wind-power capability index was 0.98 (historical average of 1).

In September, the electricity consumption was virtually in line with the consumption in the same month of the previous year, recording a negative year-on-year variation of 0.3%, or a positive variation of 0.7% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days. At the end of the third quarter, consumption accumulated a year-on-year variation of 1.8%, or 2.4% when correcting for temperature and working days.  Compared to 2019, there was a drop of 1.7%.

In the month just ended, conditions for hydropower generation were close to the average regime, registering a corresponding capability index of 1.01 (historical average of 1), whereas in wind generation, the recorded capability index was 1.12 (historical average of 1). 

In the natural gas market, the downward trend of recent months continued, with a year-on-year decrease of 12%, resulting from drops of 17% in the power generation market and 7% in the conventional segment, which covers all other consumption. The fall in the conventional segment was due to the reduction in consumption by the large industrial customers.

In the period from January to September, the consumption of natural gas recorded a year-on-year reduction of 3.5%, with the growth of 4.2% in the conventional segment not being sufficient to offset the 16% drop in the power production segment.  There was a decrease of 5% vis-à-vis the same period in 2019.