Electricity, September 2001

The consumption of electricity in September was 8 357 GWh, which is down 494 GWh compared with the corresponding month last year. There has been a decline in the consumption for the last four months compared with the corresponding months last year. The electricity consumption for the nine first months this year was 91 204 GWh. This is an increase of 0.9 per cent from the corresponding period last year, while the similar growth for the corresponding period last year was 4.1 per cent. The consumption of electricity for the last 12 months was 124 764 GWh. The decrease in the electricity consumption in June, July, August and September can be seen in connection with an increase in the electricity prices and temperatures above normal for this period.

The consumption in the production of energy intensive manufacturing in September was 2 578 GWh, which is a decrease of 3.9 per cent compared with the corresponding month last year. The decrease in the consumption was largest in the production of iron, steel and ferroalloys. The electricity consumption in the production of energy intensive manufacturing so far this year is down 0.5 per cent compared with the corresponding period last year. For the last 12 months there was, however, an increase of 0.9 per cent compared with the previous 12 months period.

Lower electricity production and contents in the water reservoirs under normal

The production of electricity in September was 7 680 GWh, which is 3 489 GWh or 31 per cent lower than for the corresponding month in 2000. The total electricity production from January to September this year was 85 766 GWh. This is a decrease of 18.8 per cent compared with the corresponding period last year. The production for the last 12 months was 123 177 GWh. The decrease in the electricity production can be seen in connection with extremely high production in 2000 together with trickle of water to the water reservoirs below normal.

The contents in the water reservoirs in the beginning of November were 87.0 per cent of the total capacity. This is 2.1 percentage points lower than the median for this period from 1990 to 2000. Equivalent, the contents in the water reservoirs in mid-September were 82.1 per cent of total capacity. This is 11.8 percentage points lower than the corresponding period last year and 6.4 percentage points lower than the median for his period from 1990 to 2000.

Import surplus of electricity

The exchange of electricity in September shows an import surplus of 677 GWh, while there was an export surplus of 2 318 GWh in September last year. There is also an import surplus of 5 433 GWh so far this year, while there was an export surplus of 15 203 GWh in the corresponding period in 2000. This change from export surplus to import surplus can be seen in connection with lower trickles of water to the water reservoirs and relatively large demand for electricity.

Tables:

• Table 1 Production, import, export and consumption of electric energy. GWh. Preliminary figures