The industries driving Colombia's power demand growth

Colombian electricity demand edged higher in November, boosted by rising activity in the hydrocarbon and mining sectors, new figures show. 

Demand reached 6.302TWh, up from 6.290TWh a year earlier, according to a bulletin published by grid operator and wholesale power market coordinator XM. 

Extractive industries saw the highest increase in energy use, jumping 12.8% to 586GWh, followed by agribusiness (up 6.74% to 73GWh), transport and storage (up 6.12% to 45GWh), social and personal services (up 4.74% to 142GWh), finance and real estate (up 1.55% to 112GWh) and energy supply (up 1.08% to 33GWh). 

Electricity consumed on the deregulated market climbed 2.67% to 2,088GWh while the figure for the regulated market dipped 1.02% to 4,182GWh.

Oriente was the region with the fastest growth (9.06%), followed by Sur (2.3%), Eje Cafetero (1.89%), Antioquia (1.31%), Centro (0.36%) and Guaviare (0.26%). 

Caribe, Chocó, Tolima-Huila-Caquetá and Valle reported declines of 4.73%, 1.6%, 1.45% and 0.82%. 

From January to November, Colombian energy consumption reached 70.2TWh, up from 67.69TWh in the first 11 months of 2021.