Back to Blog

COVID-19 cuts Europe’s annual consumption by ≈124 TWh

Eylert Ellefsen
Archived blog post. This blog post has been transferred from our previous blogging platform. Links and images may not work as intended.

European power demand has recovered faster than anticipated as lockdowns have been eased across Europe, but EQ’s latest forecast shows annual demand in 16 western European countries will still drop to around 3% below normal levels.

Consumption reduction curves, average Western Europe (%) - wk 22 vs wk17 - EQ estimates

EQ has this week updated its European demand recovery forecast from that made in week 17. The key takeaways are:

  • Weather adjusted demand recovery between weeks 17-22 has been faster than forecast (base scenario) but slowed downlast week (wk 22).
  • Consumption by week 22 is very close to EQ’s forecasted profile from week 17.
  • Our base scenario assumes the recovery profile for the rest of the year will match that issued in wk 17, which amounts to a 3.1 % annual reduction inpower demand for the 16 countries surveyed.
Consumption reduction curves by areas (%) – wk 22 – EQ estimate

All in all, this year’s demand slump is less pronounced than that caused by the financial crisis in 2009, when European demand fell around 6%.

Forecast annual demand changes - EQ estimate wk 22

EQ continually updates demand forecats for all of Europe, in addition to forecating all power fundamentals.

More from the Blog

Market indicators for Western Europe – week 45 (Thurday update)

Eylert Ellefsen
Eylert Ellefsen

Energy Quantified has started working on a market update, where we look at the main market indicators on a weekly perspective. This blog series is a sneak peek into how the market update report would look like. Updated on 5 November.

Read Story

Hydropower after thunderstorm Alex dampens CWE spot prices by 1.0–1.5 €/MWh

Eylert Ellefsen
Eylert Ellefsen

When thunderstorm Alex hit France and the Alpine region on 2 and 3 October it caused devastating flooding in several areas as precipitation hit once-in-a-century levels. In this blog post, we assess the impact on CWE spot prices and the hydrological balance in the region.

Read Story

Alpine flooding caused by once-in-a-century rainfall

Eylert Ellefsen
Eylert Ellefsen

1000 % of normal precipitation over two days.

Read Story

Ready to try Energy Quantified?

No payment or credit card required.
Would you rather like a personal demo? Book a demo