• Demand for electricity drops 0.5% in July

The international electricity exchanges of the Spanish electricity system ended the month of July with an import balance that totalled 1,888 gigawatt hours (GWh), the highest monthly value since 1990, according to provisional data from Red Eléctrica de España.

In the first seven months of 2018, the balance of international exchanges was also as an importer and totalled 7,926 GWh, up 24.7% year-on-year. This figure represents 86.4% of imports for the whole of 2017.

The increase in the import balance registered up to July is mainly due to the increase in imports through the French border (8.9% more) and the 26.1% decrease in exports to Morocco. On the other hand, the import balance with Portugal was slightly lower (3.4% less) than that registered in the same period the previous year.

Currently, Spain has 8 electricity interconnection lines with France and 11 with Portugal, reaching an interconnection ratio with countries in the rest of Europe that is less than 5% of its installed power capacity; a value that is far from the recommendation of the European Union which calls for all EU countries to achieve interconnection of at least 10% by 2020 and 15% by 2030. In addition, Spain has a submarine electricity interconnection link with Morocco.

France, Portugal and Spain signed the Lisbon Declaration on 27 July, a commitment to strengthen the interconnections between the three countries, and stressed their support for the interconnection project with France across the Bay of Biscay, a project which Red Eléctrica and its French counterpart, Réseau de Transport d'Électricité, are currently working on. Similarly, the three countries ratified their energy union commitment through the interconnection in which they are already working on between Vila Fría do Conde-Recarei (Portugal) and Frontefría-Beariz (Spain).

In this energy interconnections summit, the three countries reconfirmed their desire to move forward with the projects between Spain and France via Cartegrit-Navarra and Marsillón-Aragón.

Demand for electricity falls 0.5% in July

The peninsular demand for electricity in July is estimated at 22,286 GWh, a value that is 0.5% lower than that registered in the same month last year. After factoring in the seasonal and working patterns, the peninsular demand for electricity grew by 0.4% with respect to July 2017.

In the first seven months of 2018, the peninsular demand for electricity is estimated at 148,697 GWh, 0.9% more than in 2017. After factoring in the seasonal and working patterns, the demand is 1% higher than the value registered in the same period in 2017.

37.2% of the electricity generated on the Spanish Peninsula in July came from renewable sources. By technologies, nuclear, with 21.8% of the total, contributed most to the generation mix in this month, followed by coal (17%) and hydro (14.6%).

Electricity generation mix for July 2018

You can consult further data on the behaviour of the electricity demand in our daily balance report.

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