Renewables supply 67% of national consumption of electricity and natural gas breaks new record in January

Natural gas consumption in Portugal reached a new all-time high in January, with 6752 GWh, a 7.2% year-on-year growth.

The conventional segment was in line with the same month of the previous year, but the power production segment, benefiting from the competitive conditions of natural gas when compared to coal, grew 64%. On 24 January, there was also a new all-time high in daily consumption, with 267 GWh, surpassing the previous high of 263 GWh recorded on 5 December 2017.

In January, electricity consumption grew by 0.9% year on year, or 2.7% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days.

The inflows to hydroelectric dams were close to the normal values for this month, with the corresponding capability index standing at 1.03 (historical average of 1). The capability index in wind production was also close to its average, standing at 0.99. Thus, renewable production supplied 67% of the domestic consumption (including net exports), broken down into hydro with 36%, wind with 24%, biomass with 5% and photovoltaics with 1.2%. Non-renewable production supplied 33%, broken down into natural gas with 31% and coal, which maintains a residual use with 2%. The foreign trade balance favoured exports, amounting to around 10% of the domestic consumption.