Main magnitudes. The demand for natural gas for the generation of electricity at power stations grew by 5.5% to 34.8% of the total natural gas consumption in our country.

Overall, in 2007, sales to the sector reached 142 TWh, a figure equal to the total demand for natural gas in Spain in 1997. The electricity generation plants that used natural gas in Spain (all of them combined cycle) consumed 34.8% of the natural gas.

Determining factors Gas sales in this sector were conditioned by three issues: The combination of these variables explains why natural gas sales during the first quarter of the year fell by 5.3% and increased by 1.4% in the third quarter, always in comparison with the same periods of 2006.

When the water reserves began to fall* and despite the progressive increase in installed wind power, gas sales in this segment evolved to a supply of 45 TWh during the last 4 months of 2007, which represents an increase of 51.4% with regard to the same period of the previous year.

This type of isolated increase in demand tests the availability and effectiveness of the Spanish gas system. However, the demand was satisfied in a normal way, proving that the gas transport and management network is sufficiently extensive and fast to respond to demands that are extremely volatile during relatively short periods of time.