Portugal: Almost 85% of electricity in January generated by renewables – APREN

Almost 85% of the 5,338 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity generated in mainland Portugal in January had a renewable origin, according to data from the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association (APREN), released on Monday.

“In mainland Portugal 5,338 GWh of electricity were generated in January 2023, of which 84.4% was of renewable origin,” APREN said in a statement.

In January, the electro-production sector emitted a total of 0.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2eq), with the renewable electricity sector avoiding the emission of 0.9 MtCO2eq and spending €263 million on importing natural gas, the association said.

That month, there was an average hourly price on the Iberian Electricity Market (Mibel) in Portugal of €69.4 per megawatt-hour (MWh).

APREN stressed that since 15 June 2022, when the Iberian natural gas price limit mechanism came into operation, until 31 January, it had generated savings of €42.8/MWh, which was equivalent to an 18.4% reduction in the average hourly price on Mibel.

The savings achieved under that mechanism, which corresponds to the difference between the price without the mechanism and the price with compensation payable to natural gas power plants reached a maximum value of €157.2/MWh and a minimum of €0/MWh.

According to APREN, in total, 109.9 of the 193.2 terawatt-hours (TWh) produced were subject to the consumer adjustment mechanism in the Iberian Peninsula.

Special Regime Generation (SRG) generated savings of €837.6 million in January.