Gas consumption this year has experienced the largest growth since 2008
National demand for natural gas in 2015 has grown 5% with regard to the previous share, up to 315 TWh, representing the largest increase since 2008. This growth has been caused by the increases recorded both in the demand for natural gas for electricity production as well as domestic consumption.
More specifically, the demand for electricity production has increased 18% versus 2014, fundamentally due to reduced hydraulic production this year, the increase of electricity demand and greater activity of the combined cycles in the summer months, as a consequence of the heatwaves.
Conventional demand, targeted at the domestic, commercial and industrial sectors, is up 2%, principally as a consequence of the 8% growth in household consumption of natural gas. In turn, this is due to cooler temperatures during the first quarter, as well as an increase in the number of customers.
In the industrial sector we can highlight the increased demand of the metallurgy sector by more than 20%. Other sectors that have increased their demand include the services and paper sectors, up 6% and 3% respectively.
In 2015, the industrial market has continued to be the main consumer of gas, accounting for 58% overall, followed by the electricity power stations and the domestic-commercial sector, with 19%, and the liquefied natural gas tankers, with 3%.
NB: These are provisional figures, pending definitive annual closure.
