Renewables supply 87% of electricity consumption in November in Portugal

Renewable production supplied 87% of the electricity consumed in Portugal during the month of November. Non-renewable production supplied 13%, while the balance of exchanges with foreign countries was slightly export-oriented, accounting for about two percent of national consumption.

In November, the consumption of electricity again showed positive growth, with a year-on-year increase of 3.5%, or 3.3% when corrected for temperature and working days effects. From January to November, consumption recorded a marginally positive year-on-year evolution of 0.2%, or 0.1% when corrected for temperature and working days.

In November, conditions were again favorable for hydroelectric and wind energy production. In the case of hydroelectric power, the productivity index was 2.02 (historical average of 1), making it the third highest value in REN's records for this month (records since 1971). In hydropower, a new historical maximum in power delivered to the grid was recorded on November 5, 6719 MW, surpassing the 6569 MW of January this year. In wind energy, the monthly index was 1.04, while in photovoltaic it was 0.92.

After 11 months, the productivity indices associated with renewable energies are close to average values, with the hydroelectric energy index at 0.98, and both wind and solar at 1.01. From the beginning of the year until the end of November, renewable production supplied about 59% of consumption, distributed among wind energy with 25%, hydroelectric with 21%, photovoltaic with 7%, and biomass with 6%. Natural gas production supplied 20% of consumption, and the import balance also ensured 20%.

The natural gas market continues its downward trend, with a global year-on-year variation this month of minus 31%. In the electricity market segment, influenced by increased renewable energy availability this year, a year-on-year decrease of 64% was recorded, while in the conventional segment, which includes the remaining customers, a negative year-on-year variation of minus 2.2% was also observed.

At the end of November, natural gas consumption now shows a negative year-on-year variation of 21%, with minus 42% in the electricity production segment and minus 4.1% in the conventional segment. In the conventional segment, this is even the lowest consumption since 2009.