Renewables provide 61% of electricity in H1
Wind power and hydroelectricity supplied 25% and 23%, respectively, of the electricity consumption in the first half of the year, said REN.
Renewable production supplied 61% of Portugal’s electricity consumption in the first half of the year, especially wind power at 25% and hydroelectricity at 23%, Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) reported on Tuesday.
According to REN, photovoltaic production supplied 7% of electricity consumption and biomass 6%, while natural gas production accounted for 19%, and the remaining 20% corresponded to the import balance.
“For the half-year total, the hydroelectric generability index registered 0.79 (historical average of 1), wind generability 0.92 and solar 1.07,” said the statement released today.
In the first six months of the year, electricity consumption was “in line with the same period last year,” with a reduction of 0.3%, considering the effects of temperature and working days.
Analysing only the month of June, electric energy consumption registered a year-on-year growth of 0.5%, driven by above average temperatures. After correcting for the effects of temperature and the number of working days, it fell 1.3%.
In June, the hydroelectric regime was more favourable, registering 1.11 (historical average of 1), while wind and photovoltaic conditions were below average, with the indexes registering 0.81 and 0.97, respectively. In turn, renewable generation supplied 46% of consumption and non-renewable generation and imported energy 27% each.
With regard to the natural gas market, in the first half of the year accumulated annual consumption contracted by 21%, as a result of decreases of 4.9% in the conventional segment and 42% in the electric market.
“This is the lowest consumption since 2016 for the first half of the year,” REN said.
In June, a negative year-on-year variation of 19% was recorded in the natural gas market, with the conventional segment retreating 6.5% and the electricity generation segment falling 32%.
According to REN, the drop in the power generation segment “was due to the greater availability of renewable energy, given that there was no significant change in the import balance”.
In June, national supply was entirely from the Sines liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, with the balance of trade through the interconnection with Spain recording exports equivalent to around 22% of national consumption.
