However, January became the third month with the highest consumption in history, reaching 13,086.9 GWh.
Meanwhile, the distributors of the city of Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires (GBA) -Edenor and Edesur- had a drop of 4.6% and, throughout the country, residential, commercial and industrial consumption decreased on averageadded the Fundelec report.
In the first month of the year, the total net demand of the Wholesale Electricity Market (MEM) was 13,086.9 GWh, while, in the same month of 2022, had been 13,592.5 GWh1, while intermonthly, There was a growth of 11.3% (in December consumption was 11,762.6 GWh).
“January 2023 continues to be the second month with the highest consumption with 13,592.5 GWh, while March 2023 tops the list with a record of 13,996.3 GWh,” the entity specified in a statement.
Regarding residential demand for January, 49% of the total country was reached with a decrease of 5.4% compared to the same month of the previous year; commercial consumption fell 0.9%, accounting for 28% of total consumption; and the industrial sector reflected another 23%, with a decrease in the month of 3.3%approximately.
On the other hand, Fundelec indicated that a maximum power of 29,653 MW on February 1, 2023 at 2:18 p.m., which surpassed the historical record of 29,105 MW recorded in March 2023.
Regarding consumption by province, 17 districts and companies reported decreases: Corrientes (-13%), Entre Ríos (-12%), Santa Fe (-8%), Santa Cruz (-7%), Misiones, Córdoba, EDEN and EDES (-6%), Santiago del Estero and Tucumán ( -4%), Chaco, Jujuy, Edelap and La Pampa (-3%), and San Luis (-1%)among others.
For their part, 10 provinces and companies presented increases in consumption: San Juan (13%), La Rioja and Neuquén (6%), Chubut and Catamarca (5%), Salta (4%), Mendoza (3%), Formosa (2%), Río Negro and EDEA (1%) .
Regarding the detail of Edenor and Edesur, which They demanded 31% of the country’s consumption and totaled a joint decrease of 4.6%, Cammesa records indicate that they fell 5% and 4.1%, respectively, while the rest of the country fell in its consumption by 3.6 %, Fundelec specified.
The report also highlighted that in January hydroelectric generation “was in the order of 3,744 GWh compared to 2,635 GWh in the same period of the previous year, which represents a positive variation of 30%.”
“In this sense, the flows are above their historical values for the period, so an increase is observed in the main basins compared to the same month of the previous year,” he added.
Likewise, Fundelec indicated that “with a lower thermal dispatch, fuel consumption ended up being lower if we compare month to month at the total level,” after which he stressed that “There was a drop in alternative fuels as a whole, while natural gas also had lower consumption.”
Thus, this month it continued to largely lead thermal generation with a contribution of pproduction of 50.23% of requirements.
On the other hand, hydroelectric plants contributed 26.80% of the demand, nuclear provided 8.15%, and generators from alternative sources 14.18% of the total; while imports represented 0.65% of demand.
Source: Ambito
