Electricity consumption in Italy fell in April. This was announced by Terna, the company that manages the national electricity grid: electricity demand in Italy was 24 billion kWh, down by 0,6% compared to the same month in 2018.
The drop in consumption was caused by the bridge effect – with fewer working days for Easter, 25 April and 1 May – in addition to thetemperature drop and abnormal bad weather for the period. Indeed this year the average monthly temperature was about 2,2°C lower compared to April 2018. In addition, the Easter holidays and the day of 25 April were added which led to a prolonged period of stoppage of work activities. The data, seasonally adjusted and corrected for the effects of the calendar and temperature, leads to a negative change in electricity demand in April equal to 0,7%.
Demand in the first quarter of 2019 decreased by 0,9% compared to the corresponding period of 2018. In adjusted terms, the change becomes -0,8%. At a territorial level, the trend change in April 2019 was negative in the North (-1,3%) and positive both in the Center (+0,2%) and in the South (+0,4%). In economic terms, compared to March 2019, consumption is on the rise: +0,6%. However, the trend profile remains on a downward trend.
From the point of view of the energy produced, the bad weather drove both wind power (+20,8% of electricity produced) and thermal sources (coal and gas) up by 19,7%. Together they compensated for the drop in other sources: hydroelectric -30,8%, photovoltaic -9,6% and geothermal -0,8%. In April 2019, 89,5% of the demand for electricity was met with domestic production and the remainder (10,5%) with the balance of electricity exchanged with foreign countries. In detail, net national production (21,7 billion kWh) increased compared to April 2018 (+4,5%).
