July Drives Industrial Electricity Demand Up 3.4% Year-on-Year

The electricity demand of the Spanish industry continues to recover. In July, it recorded a year-on-year growth of 3.4%, continuing the positive trend of previous months.

This is highlighted by the analysis conducted by Opina 360 based on the provisional data from the Red Eléctrica Index, which is the leading indicator of demand from medium and large consumers (with a capacity greater than 450 kW), once adjusted for temperature variations and working calendar.

Additionally, the industry is the sector that drives demand the most, in contrast with a 2.2% decrease in the services sector. Overall, demand in this segment from the main consumers on the peninsula increased by 1.6%. However, this did not prevent the total demand of the peninsula’s electrical system, including small consumers, from experiencing a 1.6% decrease, according to calculations by Red Eléctrica.

Such a Streak Hasn’t Been Seen Since Early 2018

With July’s growth and the upward revision of the previous months, medium and large industries have managed to achieve nine consecutive months of year-on-year increases in electricity demand from the grid. A streak like this hasn’t been seen since early 2018.

By industrial subsectors, July’s growth was driven by the production of intermediate goods, whose demand increased by 6% year-on-year, compared to a 1.6% decrease in the production of consumer goods and a 3.8% decrease in capital goods.