Red Eléctrica de España has created the IRE (Red Eléctrica Index), an indicator whose objective is to facilitate information regarding the evolution electricity consumption of large and medium-sized companies as a whole, that is to say, those with contracted power of over 450 KW. For Luis Atienza, Chairman of Red Eléctrica, "the IRE analysis the monthly economic situation with real data, just three weeks after the end of every month, which will serve as an advanced economic indicator." The IRE will be published in the third week of every month, with the data of the previous month.

According to the IRE, in January 2012 electricity consumption by large power consumers dropped 4.5% with respect to the same month in 2011; the overall general demand in the same period registered a reduction of 2.6%. Broken down by sectors, the industrial sector fell 5.3%, whereas the services sector fell by 1.8%.

Regarding accumulated consumption of large power consumers, in the last 365 days it has dropped 2% with respect to the same period last year, a fall that has been accentuated during the last four months. 

Consumption in the industrial sector in the last 365 days has dropped 1.8%, in comparison to the same interval last year. During this period, industrial demand has maintained a declining trend, whereas the services sector, that fell 2.7%, shows a slight recovery in the first six months of the year and that was maintained throughout the rest of the year.

The creation and publication of this index that shows objective data regarding the behaviour of large power consumers, for Luis Atienza responds to ?the constant effort by the company to facilitate the access to information regarding the electricity system and its operation, in line with the transparency policy under which the company carries out its activities".

Detailed information at www.ree.es
The company will publish this index monthly on its webpage (www.ree.es). The index shows the total consumption of the large power consumer companies, which represent 40% of the total demand of electrical energy on the Spanish peninsula, as well as its breakdown by activity sectors: industrial and services.

Red Eléctrica will present not only monthly data - where the figures of every month shall be compared with those of the same period of the previous year-, but also accumulated data -taking as a comparison period the last 365 days-. 

The variation in the electricity consumption of large power consumers with respect to the same month of the previous year is shown in orange. The evolution of the monthly electricity consumption of large power consumers with respect to 2009, which is used as the reference for this index, is in grey.

2009 has been used as the basis for the calculation as it was the first complete year for which Red Eléctrica has complete annual data. The series of data can be consulted as from 1 January 2010, whereas in the graphs only show the data of the last thirteen months.

Red Eléctrica receives this data from the distributors, but they are not definitive until 10 months have elapsed since their publication. During this period, the data is provisional and, therefore, can be subject to variation. This data is collated at 20,583 points that correspond to 12,861 companies.

The distribution of the number of companies by sector shows a greater weight of industrial activities (57%), followed by the services sector (35%), whereas farming and livestock activities, as well as the construction sector, represent 4% respectively.