Rio de Janeiro – Energy consumption in the Brazilian energy grid rose 4.3% in October this year, as against the same month last year, reaching 39,442 gigawatts/hour (GWh), the greatest demand this year. With the expansion in October, the growth in demand for electric energy accumulated in 2013 is 3.3%.
The information is part of the Monthly Electric Energy Market Study, disclosed on Friday (29) by the Energy Research Enterprise (EPE).
Once again, the main contributor for the growth in consumption was low tension, in which residential users are supplied, as is much of the retail sector. Family consumption grew 7.6% in the month, and in the third sector, expansion was 7.3%. When viewed together, these sectors answer to 75% of the expansion of energy consumption in the month of October and almost 80% of the growth in the year.
Consumption in industry returned to growth after nine months, reaching 1.4% in comparison with October 2012 reaching demand of 15,766 GWh. With regard to September, there was 1.2% expansion in the unseasoned series.
However, industrial consumption still presents a small volume of accumulated demand in the year – expansion of just 0.2% -, the same evolution as last year.
The weak performance verified by the sector in recent months caused the index to show a contraction of 0.1% in the accumulated result for the last 12 months.
The Study shows that in some sectors with intensive electric use, consumption is still lower than usual. The EPE points out, for example, the sector of export of metal minerals, and in the metallurgical sector, the production of aluminium and some metallic alloys.
“The performance of these sectors affected consumption in the state of Maranhão (-25.8%) and Minas Gerais (-2.3%), in the month of October, and also in Bahia and São Paulo, although consumption grew 0.5% in the two latter states,” shows the report. On the other hand, the ironworks sector contributed to greater energy consumption in Paraná (+10.7%), Mato Grosso (+7.3%) and Rio de Janeiro (+2.8%).
*Translated by Mark Ament
