London (Platts)--9Jan2013/732 am EST/1232 GMT

Electricity demand in Italy in 2012 dropped by 2.8% year-on-year to 325.3 TWh from 334.6 TWh in 2011, the electricity grid operator Terna said Wednesday.

According to Terna's preliminary data for 2012, calendar-adjusted demand fell by 3.1% because 2012 had one working day more than 2011.

Terna said this was the second largest decrease in demand since 2000 after that of 2009, when demand dropped by 5.7% year-on-year to 320.3 TWh.

The grid operator said that after two years of growth in 2010 and 2011, electricity demand in 2012 has fallen back to 2004's level (325.4 TWh).

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Geographically, the biggest change was seen in Sardinia and in the Northwest (Liguria, Piedmont and Valle D'Aosta regions), where demand fell by 10.3% and 7.7% respectively.

Terna said 86.8% of total demand in 2012 was covered by national production, with thermo-electric generation accounting for 62.2%, hydro for 13.3%, geothermal for 1.6%, wind for 4% and solar for 5.6%.

The remaining 13.2% of the demand was covered by imports.

In total, 284.8 TWh were generated in Italy 2012, down by 2.3% year-on-year.

Compared with 2011, wind generation increased by 34.2%, solar by 71.8%.

Conversely, hydro, thermo-electric and geothermal generation fell by 8.2%, 6.3% and 1.4%, respectively.

DECEMBER DEMAND DOWN 3.6% TO 26.6 TWh

Terna said electricity demand in December 2012 fell by 3.6% year-on-year to 26.6 TWh.

Terna said 45.2% of all the electricity was consumed in the North (down by 2.5% year-on-year), 29.7% in Central Italy (down 3.1%)and 25.1% in the South (down 6.1%).

The grid operator said 85.9% of the electricity demand in December was covered by national production, while 14.1% was imported.

National production in December was 23.1 TWh, down 2.6% year-on-year.

Hydro, wind and solar production in December increased by 34.5%, 18.6% and 13.3% year-on-year. Thermoelectric production fell by 10.6% and geothermal by 4.2%.

--Beatrice Bedeschi, beatrice_bedeschi@platts.com
--Edited by Jonathan Dart, jonathan_dart@platts.com

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