Renewable energies are on the rise in Portugal and in early 2023 new all-time highs were reached in the values injected into the grid, both in hydroelectric (dams) and solar photovoltaic energy production, which already reaches daily peaks of around 1400 MW.
According to REN data, in January of this year, renewable production supplied 88% of consumption (including the export balance), with hydro energy standing out with 51%, followed by wind energy with 28%, biomass with 5%, and photovoltaic energy with 4%.
The favorable weather conditions for renewable technologies allowed high productivity rates to be recorded. In highlight the production of hydroelectric power, which reached 1.53 (historical average equal to 1) being the highest monthly value ever. In the same index photovoltaic energy recorded 1.18 and wind 1.02.
Non-renewable production, through natural gas power plants, supplied the remaining 12% of consumption (including the export balance). The balance of exchanges with abroad, the exporter, was equivalent to about 4% of national consumption.
The consumption of electrical energy registered a growth of 4.1% in January, compared to the same period the previous year, which is slightly reduced to 3.7% with correction for the effects of temperature and the number of working days.
In the natural gas market, consumption contracted by 30% year-on-year, mainly due to the behavior of the power generation segment, which fell by 64% as a result of the high availability of renewable energy, contrary to what had happened in the same period of the previous year.
In the conventional segment, the consumption reduction trend registered throughout the previous year was maintained, although in a less accentuated way, with a year-on-year contraction of 2.1%.
