Greek power demand down for sixth straight month

Households are unplugging electrical appliances, turning off the lights and the water heater in order to deflate electricity bills.

But businesses are also reducing the operation of their machinery, or turning to oil and gas to save costs from electricity consumption.

For six months in a row, they have been curtailing electricity demand in an attempt to counter large increases in electricity costs.

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Big dive

According to the monthly energy report of the Independent Electricity Transmission Operator (ADMIE) for December, the last month of 2022 was the one in which the largest drop in demand was recorded.

Compared to December 2021, total demand fell by 13.69% and was the biggest plunge recorded during the past year. The previous record drop was set in August (-12.71%). For six months, electricity consumption shows a negative sign: July (-11.24%), August (-12.71%), September (-5.16%), October (-8.26%), November ( -9.96%) and December (-13.69%).

In absolute terms, demand fell to 4,050 gigawatt-hours in December from 4,687 in the corresponding month in 2021. Households and businesses essentially shut down two power plants.

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The biggest cuts

Consumers who are electrified by the distribution network, i.e. households and small businesses, reduced their consumption by 15.61% in December. It is also the largest scissor ever entered. High-voltage customers, i.e. energy-intensive industries, reduced electricity demand by 1.51%.

Production

As a consequence of the large drop in demand was the decline in net electricity production in December.

It plunged by 21.93% with total net production reaching 3,815 Gigawatt hours.

The largest share was occupied by thermal production (natural gas and lignite units), RES followed with 35.6% and hydroelectric with 7.67%.