In the first nine months of 2021
Electricity production in the Autonomous Region of Madeira increased by 3.6% year-on-year
In the first nine months of 2021, electricity production, estimated from the data of electricity distribution provided by the Madeira Electricity Company (EEM), increased by 3.6% year-on-year.
Breaking down the data by source it should be highlighted that, compared to in the first nine months of 2020 – in which the distribution of electric energy stood at 630.4 Gigawatt hours (GWh) - the electricity generated by hydropower, wind and photovoltaics power sources increased by 96.2%, 51.1% and 4.0%, respectively. This growth was compensated by the decline in production through other sources, mainly by thermal power (-8.1%) and solid waste power (-19.0%), the latter affected by maintenance works in the turbine. Consequently, the share of distributed energy using thermal sources went from 75.1% in the first nine months of 2020 to 66.6% in the reference period, which means that the production of renewable energy has increased to a share of 33.4% between January and September 2021 (24.9% in the same period of 2020).
It should also be mentioned that the production of electric energy using natural gas represented 21.6% (19.9% in the first nine months of 2020) of the total production mix, recording a 12.8% increase year-on-year.
Finally, it should be noted that the electricity emission in the 3rd quarter of 2021 - which had an increase of 8.2% compared to the same period in the previous year - continues to show a strong recovery compared to 2020, despite having slowed down, since in the previous quarter there was a 11.4% increase.