Spanish energy company Iberdrola has outlined its 2018 operational results. Global net power generation increased by 5.9% in 2018 to 145.6 TWh, of which 61.7 TWh (+22%) from renewables (including hydropower). Most of the renewable generation came from onshore wind (36.6 TWh, +8%) and from hydropower (22.4 TWh, +46%). Iberdrola also generated 50.6 TWh from CCGT (-6.3%), 23.5 TWh from nuclear power plants (+1.2%), and 1.6 TWh from coal-fired power plants (-38%). Around 40% of the power generation came from Spain (57.7 TWh, +11% due to improved hydropower generation), followed by Mexico (41.4 TWh), the USA (20 TWh, +10%), Brazil (13.6 TWh, +11%) and the United Kingdom (10.7 TWh, -12%).
Iberdrola's installed power generation capacity reached 47,448 MW in 2018 (-2.1%), of which 29,177 MW for renewables (including 16,215 MW of wind and 12,252 MW of hydropower), 12,885 MW for CCGT (-7.9%), 3,177 MW for nuclear plants, and 874 MW for coal-fired plants. Spanish installed capacity stood at 25,887 MW (-0.2%), of which 15,789 MW of renewable capacity (-0.2%). The remaining capacities were mainly located in the United States (7,561 MW, +1.2%), Mexico (7,471 MW, +19.5%), Brazil (3,467 MW, +9.7%) and the United Kingdom (2,100 MW, -55%). The drop recorded in the United Kingdom is due to the sale of 2,566 MW of thermal and hydropower assets to the British company Drax Group in October 2018.
The company's electricity and gas customer bases stood respectively at 13.2 millions (-0.6%) and 3 millions (+0.6%). 77% of electricity customers and about one third of gas customers were located in Spain. Gas supplies reached 61.2 TWh (-3.1%), of which 20.1 TWh in Spain (+19%). Iberdrola distributed 233 TWh of electricity in 2018 (+1.4%), including 94 TWh in Spain (+0.7%), and 65 TWh of gas in the United States. Electricity sales in Spain and Portugal totalled 97.4 TWh in 2018 (+12.4%), of which 61.6 TWh were sold on the liberalised market. Eventually, the company produced 4.8 bcm of gas in 2018, of which 2.4 bcm were sold in wholesale transactions, 1.5 bcm to end customers and 0.8 bcm towards power production.
Iberdrola invested €5.3bn in 2018, of which 46% were dedicated to its power grid, 31% to renewables, and 20% to generation and supply. The group confirms its plans to commission 10,000 MW of new power generation capacity (4.1 GW of wind, 1.9 GW of hydropower, 0.6 GW of solar PV and 3.5 GW of CCGT capacity) by 2022.