Electricity demand during the evening is quite high, particularly in the summer months, and amounts to more than half the day’s average.
According to 2012 hourly figures obtained by The Times from Enemalta, electricity demand is normally highest between 7 and 8pm in the winter months and between 11am and 1pm in the summer.
On the other hand, power consumption drops to its lowest point between 3am and 5am throughout the year.
Although during the night electricity demand is lower than during the day, consumption still amounts to more than a third of the day’s average and sometimes surpasses half the consumption during the day.
The figures for 2012 show that the highest demand for electricity during the night was in August, reaching an average of almost 276MW. This is mainly due to the high use of air conditioning units.
Night electricity demand last year was lowest in April, with an average of 162.8MW. “Over the past years, electricity consumption at night has been increasing significantly,” an Enemalta spokesman said. “This is mainly attributed to the increased use of air conditioners both in domestic and commercial establishments.”
According to the spokesman, electricity demand is also high during the day in the summer months as high temperatures push people to switch on the air cooling units.
“Although in August there are many factories on shutdown and electricity for industry is normally significantly down, it is still the month in which we reach our annual peak demand. This is also due to high tourist influxes,” the spokesman said.
In 2012, the highest demand reached 429MW in August and the lowest was in April at 288MW.
The Nationalist Party has pledged to introduce night tariffs, between 10pm and 6am, as from March 2014 when all residential and commercial establishments are equipped with smart metres and the 200MW interconnector with Sicily is in place.
Since in continental Europe there is normally an oversupply of energy generation during the night and demand is low, tariffs fall significantly.
According to the PN’s proposals, the cost of electricity during the night should fall by between seven and 26 per cent of the day’s tariffs.