Sines Terminal ensured 100% of the natural gas supply in Portugal in February

The supply of natural gas in Portugal was carried out entirely from the Sines LNG Terminal during the month of February, even including exports through the interconnection with Spain, equivalent to about 10% of domestic consumption.

The natural gas market, meanwhile, recorded a year-on-year growth of 21% in February, driven by the power production segment, with an increase of almost 400%, due to the reduced availability of renewable energy, contrary to what had happened in the same period of the previous year. In the conventional segment, which covers the remaining consumers, as in recent months, there was a strong year-on-year decrease of 23%. In the first two months of the year, the accumulated annual consumption of natural gas recorded a variation of 5.7%, with an increase of 123% in the power production segment, and a reduction of 26% in the conventional segment.

In February, electricity consumption showed a year-on-year increase of 3.1%, which is lowered to 1.6% when correcting for the effects of temperature and number of working days. The annual evolution recorded a negative variation of 2.3%, or minus 0.1% when correcting for temperature and number of working days.

Also in February, weather conditions were especially negative for renewable energies. The hydropower capability index was reduced to 0.14 (historical average of 1), whereas the wind capability index reduced to 0.71 (historical average of 1); the observed conditions favoured only photovoltaic generation, with a capability index of 1.13 (historical average of 1), but still significantly lower than the other technologies. In February, and for the first time, photovoltaic generation reached more than 1000 MW. Renewable generation supplied only 37% of consumption, non-renewable generation 30%, while the remaining 33% was supplied by imported energy. Regarding imports, this is the highest percentage since August 1985.

In January and February, the hydropower capability index was 0.25 (historical average of 1), the wind-power capability index was 0.83 (historical average of 1), and the solar capability index stood at 1.25 (historical average of 1). In these two months, renewable generation supplied 45% of consumption, split between wind with 25%, hydroelectric with 11%, biomass with 6%, and photovoltaics with 3.6%. Generation from natural gas supplied 31% of consumption, while the import balance supplied the remaining 24%.