POWER
Spanish hydropower reserves last week - calendar week 3 – decreased to 52% of capacity, down from 52.6% the week before, data from Spain’s Environmental Ministry showed, with higher demand supporting hydropower generation, while precipitation was low.
- Hydropower reserves increased in calendar week 2.
- Stocks narrowed the surplus to last years levels to 1.5 percentage points, down from 7.4 points a week earlier.
- The surplus to the five-year average also narrowed to 1 point, from 3.5 points the week before.
- Power demand in Spain last week increased to 30.68GW, up from 27.7GW the week prior.
- Hydropower generation from pumped storage last week increased by 514MW to 1.29GW. Output from reservoirs grew by 1.26GW to 3.28GW and run-of-river generation was broadly stable at 1.17GW.
- Nuclear generation in Spain last week edged higher by 256MW to 7.12GW.
- Gas-fired generation last week surged to 8.02GW last week, from 3.87GW the week before.
- Wind output in Spain fell sharply last week by 7.55GW to 5.63GW while solar PV output increased by 1.9GW to 4.64GW.
- The hydro-intensive region of Huesca saw no precipitation last week, hindering inflows into reserves.
- Looking ahead, the latest ECMWF forecast suggested precipitation to pick up this week to total 15.2mm, above the seasonal normal of 7mm.
- Mean temperatures in Madrid this week are forecast to be above the seasonal average, limiting demand for heating.
Wind output in Spain for the remainder of this week (Wed-Sun) is forecast to pick up on the week to 5.65GW to 13GW during base-load hours according to SpotRenewables.
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