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

German coal production for Q2 2021 reduces 20% on pre-pandemic levels

Eylert Ellefsen
Eylert Ellefsen

With power market conditions fluctuating in response to changing consumption demands as economies across Europe look to kickstart the green recovery after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eylert Ellefsen, Senior Analyst and Hydrology Expert at Energy Quantified presents a comparison of the German power balance between Q2-2019 and Q2-2021.

Read Story

Low spot prices in NP-north area, will the power balance situation be eased during Q3?

Eylert Ellefsen
Eylert Ellefsen

In this blog, Energy Quantified's Eylert Ellefsen dives into the fundamental power balance numbers in the NP-North area, explaining the current surplus situation, grid flows between price zones and future outlooks for the summer. Please note, we use the terminology "NP-North" to refer to the SE1, SE2, NO3 & NO4 price areas.

Read Story

Spot prices increase as Central Western European hydropower production hits 25 year low

Eylert Ellefsen
Eylert Ellefsen

This April has seen a notably cold spell of weather sweep across Europe. Temperatures have been 4 or 5 degrees Celsius below normal in most areas, whilst spot prices for the past month have delivered 5-7 €/MWh higher than expected in several areas. In this blog post, we study how the Central Western European (CWE) hydropower system developed during this cold spell and compared this situation to available historical statistics.

Read Story

Ready to try Energy Quantified?

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