Coronavirus effect on electricity consumption. As was widely foreseeable, in March, according to what was reported by Terna, the company that manages the national electricity grid, the demand for electricity in Italy was 23,7 billion kWh, down by 10,2% compared to the same month of 2019. This value was obtained with an extra "working" day (the inverted commas are a must but it would have been 22 against 21) and an average monthly temperature 1,2°C lower than in March last year.
The reduction in consumption recorded is evidently affected by the impact of the measures introduced to deal with the health emergency from Covid-19, and the seasonally adjusted figure, adjusted for calendar and temperature effects, brings the variation to as much as -11,1%. Demand for the entire first quarter of 2020 (therefore in a semi-normal situation) is in any case down by 4,5% compared to the corresponding period of 2019. In adjusted terms, the change is equal to -5,2%. At the territorial level, the trend change in March 2020 was negative everywhere: -13% in the North, -8,7% in the Center and -4,7% in the South.
In March 2020 the demand for electricity was 83,4% satisfied with national production and for the remainder (16,6%) from the balance of energy exchanged with foreign countries. Production from renewable sources covered 36% of demand, an increase compared to the same period of 2019 (33%). In detail, net national production (20,1 billion kWh) decreased (-12,1%) compared to March 2019. Hydroelectric (+32,1%) and geothermal (+3,3 ,13%); photovoltaic (-16%), thermoelectric (-28,1%) and wind (-XNUMX%) sources were down.
The detailed analysis of the monthly electricity demand is available on Terna site.
