The industry slows down and reduces its electricity consumption by 2.5%

The industry slows down and reduces its electricity consumption by 2.5%

40% of the production of this energy in 2018 came from renewables, while the electricity bill increased by an average of 2.5%

   The industry is the sector of the Spanish economy that is most accusing the deceleration , to the point that it may even be aggravating after the exhaustion of its last expansive cycle. The decline in exports, together with the slowdown in domestic consumption, has even led to a recession in the last quarter of 2018, when its GDP contracted by 0.9%.

 That is why it has worried, more than surprising, that industrial production fell by 6.2% year on year in December, its worst record for this month since 2012, that is, since the last recession in the national economy. The commercial war and the weakness of the main importing countries of Spanish materials -especially Germany and Italy-, together with the uncertainties generated by the 'brexit', have sunk almost 13% the production of durable consumer goods such as cars, appliances and furniture.

In turn, the manufacturing of equipment goods - machines for other industries - decreased by 5.7% in December, its worst figure since 2014, which creates a clearly downward business climate. In the same line in intermediate goods , where the auxiliary industry operates, it fell by 4.3% and marked its minimum since the end of 2013. In line with this , the industry's electricity consumption fell by 2.5% last year -in December made even half a point more-, and this in turn represents almost two thirds (63.1%) of the large users of that energy.

In contrast, the services sector -where trade, hotels and tourism fit, accounting for 27% of light consumption- increased by 0.6% _the use of electricity, while companies in general- more than 23,000 large consumers with a contracted power of more than 450 kW, close to 45% of all the peninsular demand- increased their use by 3.1%, which reduced to 1.8% _ the average decrease among large users.


The 'green' contribution grows

All this in a last year where the peninsular demand of electric power grew by 0.4%, while the bill for the traditional domestic consumer (the one of the regulated market or the PVPC tariff) rose an average of 2.5%, clearly more that wages (1.75% agreed by social agents), pensions (revalued by 1.5%) and inflation (1.2%). And this considering that the average price of electricity in the wholesale market increased by almost 10% in 2018, but as it only means half of the bill and the Government froze the other part (which includes regulated costs, such as tolls, and taxes), the final increase for the pocket was moderated.

But where does this electricity come from? According to the data presented Thursday by Red Electrica (REE), the operator that guarantees the supply, 40.1% came in 2018 from renewable sources , and within it stood out by quota the wind energy (49%) and the hydraulics (34%), well above the solar (11%). If they were joined by the nuclear contribution (20.6%), peninsular electricity generation without CO2 emissions would have reached 62.5%.

For Secretary of State for Energy, José Domínguez, this shows that Spain is already "prepared for the journey of the energy transition ". Although that yes, admitted that still "we are in the initial phase".