• Red Eléctrica is developing new projects that will allow the evacuation of up to 30,500 MW of new renewable power capacity
• During the first six months of the year, the peninsular demand for electricity has experienced an increase of 1.2% with respect to the same period in 2017

Wind has favoured the generation of 27,779 GWh of electricity between January and June 2018, which makes wind power the leading technology in this period, with 22.6% of the total generation on the Spanish peninsula. Compared with the first six months of 2017, wind energy production has increased by 10.4%.

On the other hand, rainfall in Spain within the period has helped increase hydroelectric generation, increasing 74% in the biannual generation compared to the same period of 2017, a particularly dry year. From January to June, this technology has produced 20,821 GWh, which represents a 16.9% share of the total peninsular generation.

Thus, the meteorological conditions of the first half of the year have contributed to renewable generation, which has produced almost half (45.8%) of the total production on the Spanish peninsula and has helped increase the share of renewables by 8.5 percentage points over the same period in 2017.

In order to continue increasing the integration of renewable generation into the Spanish electricity system, Red Eléctrica is working on new projects, associated with the 2015-2020 Electricity Infrastructure Planning, which will enable the evacuation of up to 30,500 MW more of renewables into the peninsular transmission grid.

67.5% of the electricity generation of the first half of the year was obtained using technologies which produce zero CO2 emissions, included in this figure is the contribution of nuclear energy to the total peninsular generation mix (20.6% of the total).

The high share of renewable technologies in the peninsular generation mix would not have been possible without a gradual increase in the installed renewable power capacity in the territory. According to the report ‘Renewable energy in the Spanish electricity system 2017’, installed renewable power capacity has increased by 53% in the period 2007-2017.

Peninsular generation mix from January to June 2018

Slight increase in the electricity demand on the Spanish peninsula

From January to June, the demand for electricity reached 126,411 GWh, representing an increase of 1.2% compared to the first six months of the previous year. After having factored in seasonal and working patterns, the demand for electricity would have increased by 1.1%.

Although the cumulative annual total of the peninsular electricity demand has shown growth, the demand in the month of June reached 20,337 GWh, a fall of 6,3% with regard to the same month in 2017. After having factored in seasonal and working patterns, demand was 3.2% lower. The mild temperatures recorded during the first part of June 2018 have been the main cause of the decrease in demand.

You can consult further data on the behaviour of the peninsular electricity demand during the first six months of 2018 in our daily balance report.