Spanish Gas Demand Rises in May
Spain’s gas grid operator Enagas said May 31 that demand for natural gas in the country in May 2018 grew by 11.6% year on year; it did not give a total volume.
Demand from homes, businesses and industry grew by 9.1% year on year in May to 21.553 terawatt-hours (2bn m3) – inclusive of 17.654 TWh used by industry, up 8.3%, the highest figure for use by industry ever recorded for May. The higher demand was in part due to cooler than usual weather. Gas demand from power generation increased by 24.6%, as generators relied more on gas during a cool month.
This year to date, demand for natural gas in Spain is about 7.4% higher than during January-May 2017, Enagas added.
Spain's national power grid REE said that electricity demand in peninsular Spain in May 2018 was 1% lower year on year at 20.044 TWh, but up 2.8% in the first five months overall to 106.121 TWh.
During May 2018, the main sources of power generation were: nuclear 19.7%, hydro 18.2%, wind 17.2%, co-generation 12.8%, coal 11.9%, and combined-cycle gas plants (CCGTs) 10.3%. Only gas is used in CCGTs and mostly gas is used in co-generation. For comparison, during the first five months of 2018, CCGTs and co-generation supplied respectively 8.3% and 11.4% of Spain's power.