• Consumption in the industrial sector has fallen the most, down 3% compared to December 2017.
• In the last twelve months, the electricity consumption of large and medium-sized companies has been 1.3% lower than in the same period last year.

The electricity consumption of large and medium-sized companies in December fell 3% compared with the same month last year, according to data from the Red Eléctrica Index (IRE). Broken down by sector, industrial consumption fell 3% and consumption in the services sector dropped 2.4%. The effects of seasonal and working patterns were factored in when calculating this data.

Compared to December 2017 and focusing purely on the five activities with the highest electricity consumption, demand from the metallurgy industry has fallen 3.7% and the chemical industry by 7%; the manufacturing industry for other non-metallic mineral products has grown 4.4% and the food industry by 2.8% and the paper industry has fallen 0.1%.

The activities that contributed most to the consumption of large companies in December were: manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products with an increase of 4.4%, manufacture of food products (2.8%), electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (8.7%), other mining and quarrying (4.1%), and wholesale and retail trade except of motor vehicles and motorcycles (1.5%).

Analysing the data of the last twelve months, the electricity consumption of these companies, after having factored in the effects of seasonal and working patterns, has fallen 1.3%, year-on-year. By sector, industrial consumption has fallen 2.5% and consumption in the services sector has increased 0.6%. 

All data regarding electricity consumption for each of the economic activities can be found in more detail in the IRE section of the Red Eléctrica website.

The IRE is an indicator which aims to provide information on the evolution of the electricity consumption of all large and medium-sized companies, defined as those with a contracted capacity above 450 kW. The measurements are collected at more than 23,400 points of approximately 13,900 companies. The consumption taken into account by the IRE represents about 45% of the total electricity demand, the remaining demand corresponds to residential consumers and other types of consumption.

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