The demand for electrical energy on the Spanish peninsula in the month of April, after having factored in the seasonal and working patterns, dropped 0.9% with respect to the same month last year. Gross demand was 19,471 GWh, 0.6% higher than in April 2011.

In the first four months of the year, after having factored in the seasonal and working patterns, consumption was 1.8% lower than in the same period the previous year. Gross electricity demand in this period was 86,506 GWh, 0.6% less than the same period in 2011.

Blue line: gross demand.
Red line: demand.

A month of wind power maximums
In April, wind power exceeded several historical records. This month a record monthly wind power production of 5,362 GWh was reached, 8.8% more than the previous maximum recorded in December 2009 (4,926 GWh).

In addition, on April 18 wind energy production reached new maximums for instantaneous power, hourly energy and daily energy. 16,636 MW of maximum instantaneous power was recorded at 4:41 pm, representing an increase of 11.2% over the previous record of 14,962 MW, on November 9, 2010. Also that same day the maximum hourly and daily energy records were exceeded, with 16,455 MWh and 334,850 MWh, respectively.

This month also set a new record of demand coverage by wind power, when during the early hours of April 19, at 1:37 am, 61.06% of Spanish peninsular demand (24,384 MW) was covered by wind power generation (14,889 MW), exceeding the previous record of 60.46% registered on April 16 this year at 3:48 am.

Generation obtained from renewable energy sources reached 39.4% of the total generation, a percentage similar to that recorded in April last year, which was 39.5%.

In addition, 62.4% of electricity generation during the month was produced by technologies which produce zero CO2 emissions.

Generation mix in the month of April 

Generation mix from January to April 2012