Uruguay reached a new historical peak of electricity consumption in the midst of a week-long cold wave. The historic record was not due to the power at a specific hour but to the use of energy throughout the day, with 2,289 megawatts on Wednesday, which was surpassed once again on Friday. “This week, day after day, we have been breaking consumption records,” said the president of UTE, Silvia Emaldi.
The use of heating methods electric power, Like air conditioning, it has been increasing in the country due to greater energy efficiency, which, in any case, caused consumption to skyrocket when temperatures dropped dramatically, as happened this week in the middle of the cold wave.
With this, UTE registered on Monday, July 8, the historical record of energy demand in Uruguay: The “peak consumption” occurred at 9:14 p.m. with 2,279 megawatts (MWh). But on Wednesday, consumption increased again and the record for a specific point in time reached 2,289 megawatts.
This did not end there: in the same week, this record was surpassed, as Emaldi indicated in a press conference. “Yesterday the record for energy consumption was broken throughout the day. This week, day after day, we have been breaking consumption records, whether in power or in global demand within 24 hours,” he noted.
In this regard, he explained that a new record was achieved on Thursday, but not for power at a specific time, but for energy consumption throughout the day.
90% of energy is renewable, Emaldi explained, although at peak times the thermal power stations of Tiger Point They provide extra energy. In addition, he said that at certain times of the day energy is exported to Argentina “which also due to the cold wave is requiring more generation than it has.”
Towards greater energy efficiency
Uruguay moves towards a second energy transformation and has almost all of the electricity consumed generated from renewable sources. However, on the other hand, the onset of colder temperatures shows that there are still pending issues in terms of energy: in inland areas, at least 56% continue to use renewable energy. firewood as the main source for the heating.
Heating is one of the activities in which Uruguayans consume the most energy in their homes. In fact, until at least 2006 —according to the latest data available from the National Balance of Useful Energy (BNEU) of the National Energy Directorate—, represented the main use of energy in these spaces.
This situation brings into focus the way Uruguayans heat themselves, considering that most of their energy consumption is used for this activity. This data can be obtained from the Continuous Household Survey which is published annually by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
In this sense, according to the data for 2023, 9 out of 10 homes in the country have heating and 97% of them use firewood, electricity or supergas as the main source, in that same order of preference: firewood dominates with 45%, followed by electricity with 27%, and the supergas with 24%.
While the inclination towards supergas has been giving way to electricity in the last decade, it has also given way to firewood. Especially if we look at the differentiation at a regional level. Montevideo, For example, 41% of households use electricity, while in urban areas with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants and rural areas, firewood is the dominant source with 78%. Meanwhile, in urban areas with more than 5,000 inhabitants, firewood remains popular, although to a lesser extent, with 56% of households heated in this way.
Source: Ambito
