“Between January and June, 26,229 GWh [gigawatt-hours] were consumed, surpassing the previous high, dated 2010, by around 240 GWh,” said the global manager of the electricity system.

Until June, electricity production from renewable sources supplied 77% of consumption, with hydroelectric power accounting for 36%, wind power 26%, solar power 11% and biomass 5%.

Natural gas production supplied 13% of consumption, while the remaining 10% corresponded to imported energy.

In an analysis of the month of June alone, REN recorded a 4.4% increase in electricity consumption, or 3.1% when correcting for the effects of temperature and working days.

In that month, “despite the increase in demand, weather conditions were unfavourable for the production of electricity from renewable sources” and, in total, renewable production supplied 55% of consumption, while non-renewable production accounted for 17% and the remaining 28% was supplied by imports.

In relation to the natural gas market, consumption recorded an annual growth of 32% in June, driven by the increase in electricity production from natural gas. In contrast, the conventional segment, which includes other consumers, recorded a drop of approximately 14%.

In the first half of the year, accumulated natural gas consumption grew by 10.1%, with the electricity production segment more than doubling compared to the same period of the previous year, while the conventional segment recorded a contraction of 7.6%, reaching the lowest value since 2009.