Power Statistics - 2010 Edition - Full Report - Eurelectric

Setting the Scene:
Macroeconomic and Regulatory Trends
Economic crisis and electricity demand downturn
With the world economy in turmoil from late 2008, the recession
began affecting the electricity sector severely from 2009
onwards. Between 2008 and 2009 overall energy consumption
in the EU-27 decreased by 5.5 %. 1
While not explicitly reflected in the 2008 figures, the economic
downturn appears very clearly in the provisional 2009 data
incorporated into this report. Energy-intensive industries
reduced their consumption significantly, thus reducing total
electricity consumption. Electricity demand was affected from
2008 or 2009 onwards (depending on the country in question),
showing negative consumption trends. Total EU electricity
demand dropped, between 2008 and 2009, by 4.2 % from
3,165 TWh to 3,034 TWh (see Figure 1).
Despite the overall decrease in electricity demand, national
patterns vary widely – the economic crisis did not strike evenly
throughout Europe. In 2009, Slovenia experienced the biggest
year-on-year decrease, with a decline of 10.9 %. Slovakia,
Hungary and Estonia also experienced cuts exceeding 8 %. As
for the large electricity consuming countries, demand fell by 6.5 %
in Italy, by 5.2 % in Germany, by 4.3 % in Spain and by 3.9 % in
the UK. Within this category, only France saw a lower decrease
of 1.6 %. Similar decreases (between 1 and 2 percentage points)
were registered in Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal and Romania.
The only country with rising demand was Cyprus (+ 2 %).
1 Source: DG ENER, Energy Trends 2030.
Figure 1: EU-27 Total electricity demand (EU-27)
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Total demand (TWh)
1980 1990 2000 2007 2008 2009
Power Statistics – 2010 Edition 11