Electricity consumption in Italy: -1.3% in May

Rome, 13 June, 2016 - In May 2016, electricity demand in Italy was 24.6 billion kWh, with a 1.3% decrease on the same month last year. Without adjusting for variations the number of days and the temperature, the estimated change in electricity demand for May 2016 amounts to -3.1%. Compared to the same month in 2015, the average monthly temperature was about one and a half degrees centigrade lower, while there were two more working days than last year.

The 24.6 billion kWh of demand for the month of May 2016 were distributed 46.7% in the North, 30% in Central Italy, and 23.3% in the South. At the territorial level, electricity demand in May 2016 was down across the country: -0.7% in the North, -1.9% in Central Italy and -2.3% in the South.

In the short-term, seasonally adjusted data for May 2016 showed substantial stability in electricity demand compared to April (+0.1%). The trend is once again downward.

In May 2016, 87.2% of electricity demand was met by national production and the remaining part (12.8%) by the balance of electricity exchanged with foreign countries. More specifically, net national production (21.7 billion kWh) dropped by 3.4% compared to March 2015. Thermoelectric production increased (+0.2%), as did geothermal production (+0.6%) and wind power (+33.1%), while hydroelectric (-18.3%) and solar production (-10%) dropped.

During the first five months of 2016, electricity demand decreased by 1.6% compared to the same period in 2015; based on the same number of days, the result was -2.3%.

The provisional detailed monthly analysis of electricity demand for 2016 and 2015 are available in the publication 'Rapporto Mensile sul Sistema Elettrico', (Italian version only) under the section 'Sistema elettrico >> Dispacciamento >> Dati esercizio' atwww.terna.it