Spanish gas demand in 2015 is set to break six years of drops and will rise 5% from 2014, according to a note published by gas grid operator Enagas on Wednesday.
Total gas demand should reach 315 TWh by the end of the year, Enagas said.
This would be the first annual increase since 2008.
In that year, gas demand increased 10% year on year to 449 TWh.
By comparison, conventional demand in 2015 should hit around 255 TWh. This compares with 262 TWh in 2008.
However, the sharpest contrast is from gas-to-power demand, which totaled 187 TWh in 2008 and is likely to hit around 61 TWh in 2015, or less than a third of the total.
To compound the slump, Spain currently has 67 combined cycle gas plants now, compared with 54 in 2008. In 2008 they reached a peak utilization rate of 74% compared with 31% in 2015, according to Enagas.
Nonetheless, the 2015 figures showed a marked increase from 2014, with gas-to-power demand rising 18% from the previous year due to lower hydro output and increased summer demand and a 2% year-on-year rise in conventional demand, driven by an 8% increase in domestic demand on colder weather in the first quarter and an increase in the number of consumers, Enagas said.
In the industrial sector there was a 20% increase in gas demand from the metals sector, while service sector demand was up 6% and paper industry demand up 3%, Enagas said, without adding details.
The industrial sector was the largest consumer of Spanish gas in 2015, receiving 58% of the 315 TWh total.