Electricity demand in Italy: record in August due to the heat

The demand for electricity in Italy accelerates under the pressure of the heat. In August, consumption reached 28.9 TWh, the highest value ever recorded for this month, with an increase of 16.5% compared to August 2025. This is what emerges from data from Terna, the company led by Pasqualino Monti which manages the national electricity grid.

The increase was mainly affected by the exceptionally high temperatures. The monthly average was 2.6°C higher than in August 2025 and 3°C higher than the average of the last decade. The difference was even more marked at night, when temperatures were on average 5°C higher than a year earlier, prolonging the use of cooling systems.

The presence of one more working day also affected the figure, 21 versus 20. Net of the effects of temperature and calendar, however, electricity demand still recorded a trend growth of 5.9%. The requirement thus increases for the fourth consecutive month. Compared to July, the seasonally adjusted figure corrected for calendar and temperature effects marks a +3.5%, bringing the demand for electricity to the highest levels of the last ten years.

The growth affected the entire country: +13.2% in the North, +21.7% in the Center and +18.2% in the South and on the islands. The data from Sicily is particularly significant, where temperatures 2.9°C higher than in August 2025 contributed to an increase in demand by 25%.

Given the strong growth in consumption, renewable sources produced 12 TWh, covering 41.4% of national demand. Photovoltaic reached 6.2 TWh, up 20.4%, also supported by the growth in installed capacity.

Overall, however, renewable generation remained essentially stable (+0.4%): the growth of solar was offset by declines in wind power (-24.2%), hydroelectric (-16%), geothermal (-3.4%) and bioenergy (-3.5%).

National production satisfied 85.7% of demand, reaching 25.2 TWh (+14.6%). To meet the high demand peaks, both thermoelectric production and imports from abroad increased, the latter growing by 25.2%.

Meanwhile, the increase in renewable capacity continues. In August, 417 MW came into operation, bringing new installations since the beginning of the year to 4.6 GW. The total renewable power thus reached 88.1 GW, of which 47.7 GW photovoltaic and 14 GW wind. In the first eight months of 2026, Italian electricity demand increased by 5% overall, equal to 10.4 TWh more than in the same period of 2025. Renewables covered 42.4% of needs, with photovoltaic production growing by 19.6%.