The recovery of electricity consumption continues in Italy. The data provided by Terna, the company that manages the national electricity grid, is important because it gives the measure of recovery of economic activities, after the sharp slowdown in the spring of 2020, due to Covid. In July, the requirement was 30,3 billion kWh, an increase of 4,9% compared to the volumes of July 2020. In short, we returned to pre-pandemic consumption levels, above all thanks to the leap in the South: the figure for electricity demand, seasonally adjusted and adjusted for calendar and temperature effects, is up by 3,8% (and down by 0,9% compared to June 2021), but at a regional level the trend change in July was positive everywhere: +4,3% in the North, +4,6% in the Center and +6,2% in the South. In the first seven months of the year, electricity demand in Italy grew by 7,3% compared to the homologous period of 2020.
By directly examining industrial consumption, which Terna is able to monitor through the data of 530 so-called energy-intensive customers connected to the national electricity transmission grid, the substantial return of industrial consumption to pre-Covid levels: the index is up by 10,3% compared to July 2020 and by 2,1% compared to July 2019. Only consumption related to the means of transport and construction materials industries is down. However, the value for the first seven months of 2021 is down slightly by 2% compared to the same period of 2019 (-1,8% adjusted).
Electricity consumption is met about 85,5% with national production, but the bad news from an environmental point of view is the slowdown in the percentage deriving from renewable energy sources, which drops below 40% to 38%. Wind power did very well (+44,9%), hydro power also did well (+6,7%), geothermal (+1,5%), but the decline in photovoltaics (-7,8%) and the thermal (-2,6%).
