While designing its contingency plan to comply with Brussels, the data reveals that Spain shoots up its gas consumption to produce electricity due to the drought and sales to France, while reducing it in homes and industry. In the first seven months of 2022, the demand for gas to generate electricity has risen by 83.2% up to 72.9 terawatt-hours (TWh), compared to the figures for the previous year. While the so-called conventional demand (composed of industry and households and SMEs) has been reduced by almost 13%, to a total of 150,837 TWh.
The usual thing is that the production of electricity with water accounts for around 12% of the generation mix in Spain, but so far this year it has not reached an average of 7% due to the drought. Added to this is the fact that, since November, Spain has been a net exporter of electricity to France, when the opposite was usual.
The reasons for the rise in sales to France are two: half of the French nuclear power plants are stopped for maintenance and the cap on the price of gas in the Iberian Peninsula drives the flow from the south to the north. Therefore, this puts pressure on the demand for electricity and boosts gas generation, in the absence of another technology such as coal. To this equation we must add an increase in demand due to the high temperatures that drive the use of air conditioning.
Spain has agreed with Brussels to reduce its electricity consumption by 7% based on the average consumption of the last five years. The average gas consumption in those eight months since 2017 was 261.32 TWh, of which 20% corresponds to SMEs and domestic demand, 54% to industry and 24% to electricity generation. With these numbers, Spain would have to reduce its consumption by 18.3 TWh in the next eight months. The question now is how to do it. The Executive announced a campaign to save energy in public buildings that involves limiting the temperature inside, turning off the light at night, closing the doors when they are air-conditioned premises and checking the boilers and has asked the public to also adopt measures saving. The Government did not quantify how much this measure could reduce consumption, but SMEs and households have already reduced their use of gas (4% in the last six months and 13.8% in June).
Along the same lines, the industry has decreased its consumption by 20.2% in June and 11.8% in the accumulated since January. “In July it will be 30% and August is going the same way. Not because of efficiency, but because of high energy prices. The industry can no longer stop,” he says. Veronica Riviere, president of GasIndustrial, the employers’ association of large industrial gas consumers. “And in the conversations with the Ministry, a mandatory shutdown is not contemplated either, but rather efficiency measures,” he adds. For example, the promotion of renewable gases such as biogas or biomethane, green hydrogen or voluntary interruptibility, as he explains. .
Therefore, the leg that remains is electricity generation. At this point, Rivière points out that the only option would be to exempt electricity exports to France from complying with these calculations to avoid that if Spain increases its gas consumption to send electricity to France, it will be penalized. “That is in the hands of the Ministry and Europe because otherwise we would have to cut off and stop sending gas,” explains Rivière. From the department headed by Teresa Ribera, they explain that it has been proposed that the part of gas consumption that is consumption for third countries not enter the account.